First of all, I would like to recommend to everyone the airline 'Air New Zealand'. This was probobly the best flight I have ever been on -- lots of room, amazing food, amazing coffee, great choice of wine, 30+ movies (and good ones), and the most comfortable blankets ever (I almost stole mine). Wonderful flight.
Though upon touching down I almost ran into quite a bit of trouble. Normally customs forms in countries are not that big a deal... check no everywhere and all good. Well... not here. I glanced over the form--no I dont have food, livestock, or dirt. Check check check.
Well not so much check -- upon putting my backpack into the customs scanner the officer pulls it out and states that I have hiking shoes in there that I did not declare that are not new, and therefore I lied on my form. What? Since when can I not bring hiking shoes?
Well apparently the Oceania region requires all items that have been used and have any soil on them must be declared. The officer let me off, maybe because of the dumbfounded look on my face. That teaches me not to read the fine print well enough. Sure enough -- the form did state that all used hiking shoes must be declared. Luckily all that I had to do was to extract them from my bag (thank goodness it unzips in so many places!) and have him scan them. Lesson learned.
But alas, now I am in Auckland... and the sun has not yet risen. Being the safe lone female traveler I am, am attempting to not go outside until there is some light. Though the sight from the hill I got dropped off on was amazing -- could see the skyline, and well... a city asleep is a beautiful sight.
But my main desire now is some sleep - some people are starting to get up and make breakfast in the kitchen, but I am really too tired to try to be social. Hoping I can get to sleep early tonight and meet some people when I have a bit more energy.
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