Auckland, New Zealand

After a 2.5 hour flight to L.A. from Seattle, an 8 hour layover in L.A. and a 12.5 hour flight to Auckland, we made it here!! Since we crossed the international dateline, we lost Sunday, so ended up arriving here Monday morning, which is always kind of wild to think of. Anyway, we arrived to absolutely flawless weather, with temps around 70 degrees and bright, blue sunny skies. What a gorgeous city! In many ways, it reminds me of Seattle with the hilly terraine and all the water that surrounds it.

Today we took a fantastic afternoon tour with a company called New Zealand Wine Pros, where we visited three wineries as well as a beautiful black sand beach. The drive took us north of Auckland where the countryside consists of green, rolling farmland. John, our guide, was a wealth of information as well as being tons of fun to hang out with! He truly made the experience worthwhile. It's no secret that New Zealand produces excellent wines, but they are particularly well known for their Sauvignon Blancs and Chardonnays. Honestly, neither Jim or I have ever been big fans of Chardonnays (reds are more our speed) but I have to say, these really changed our minds.......quite delicious!!

Tomorrow we fly down to Queenstown on the South Island, which will be about a two hour flight. We'll be renting a car there and driving around the southern tip of the island, where we'll visit the glowworm caves, take a cruise on Milford Sound and check out the royal albatross colony. Sounds like a pretty busy week ahead!!