After all the craziness at work, I was so glad to begin my journey to the other side of the globe for my friend’s wedding and to see the country. As I thought I had everything in control and planned out, I found my newly bought portable hardrive didn’t work in the middle of the night. I hoped and thought that I may get it fixed just in time before my flight, and no luck. I was disappointed, but at least I had my camera and a 4G memory card, which I know it should be fine. Somehow, it gave me a weird vibe that something not good may happend.
My flight from Vancouver to New Zealand had to stop in San Fransico, as there is no direct from Vancouver. Luckily the stop over wasn’t too long. I made my way there to Auckland within 18 hours. I was well entertained on the flight from Air Canada learning Canada’s best new restaurants to Air New Zealand watching many movies within my control the first time.
I arrived Auckland at dawn, and went straight to the ferry terminal area for my bus to Waitomo for Ruakuri caves tour. The bus journey to Waitomo was 3 hours. Most people in the bus went to see the Waitomo caves for the glow worms, but no picture was allowed. I was the only one signed up for the Ruakuri caves tour from my bus. Although that tour allowed me to take pictures, it was very difficult with very low lighting there. I saw glow worms and learned about their life cycle. In the caves, there are interesting rock formation. They have equipment there to monitor the air quality to ensure the site is safe. It was a educational tour, but I wish that I was able to do the Black Water Rafting. On my way back to Auckland, the bus driver tried to educate the passengers by playing some NZ history videos. I was interested, but I was too tired and fell asleep. One thing I learned was kiwi famous original ice creme flavour - Hokey Pokey. I had a cone when we stopped at one souvenir shop.Back to Auckland around 5 or 6pm, I checked in to the hostel, walked around the downtown a little, picked up some food at a geocery store. Most stores closed early. Sad that I didn’t get my chance to search for my Blund Stone’s size 2.5. Hostel was nice and clean. I decided to go to bed early to catch my beauty sleep.