Kia Ora Auckland!

Initially we had a 12 hour layover in Houston before heading to Auckland.  Normally I hate long layovers but since my family is in Houston, it was going to work out great. We had a plan to have lunch with my grandma, go wakeboarding for the day, and then do dinner with my family. We'd head to the airport and be exhausted and ready to sleep!  Unfortunately our morning flight to Houston got cancelled/rescheduled (silver lining: more time to pack- which we always need!) and we didn't have time to leave the airport to see the fam. Instead, we had a quick 2 hours so we just had dinner at the airport.

Leading up to today's flight, I had been tracking our seat selection. I love gambling with our seat choices and we decided to pick both aisle seats of a 4 seater in the center of the plane.  We lucked out and no one chose the two seats in the middle!  Hooray!  Having those two extra seats made the 14 hr flight to Auckland a breeze!  Honestly, easiest flight ever!  Will and I could take turns and lay down to sleep. While Will's legs had to hang off a bit, I was able to lay down with legs fully extended and that, partnered with Air New Zealand's great movie selection, the flight went by so quickly! 

After getting into Auckland, we picked up our rental car (pink piece of junk!) and hung around downtown.  While at the rental office, we saw a world map which initially surprised me a whole bunch.  Talk about perspective!  Will was initially a little nervous about driving on the opposite side of the road but he got a hang of it!

We went to see the World Press Photo exhibit which happened to be in town. It was neat to see all of these powerful photos, many of which I recognized from the news. 


First breakfast... such a cute coffee shop!

Then the World Press exhibit...

We then went to a food court for lunch. Food courts are big here in Auckland and there's so many of them!  They all look pretty junky but they are actual delicious and very popular amongst the locals.  You see all kinds of people, even businessmen in suits.  Other that that, we just explored downtown, ate a bunch, and rested up for the big day we have tomorrow! Auckland is a pretty small city but there are lots of cute shops, cafes, and restaurants.