Arrived in Auckland

After about 22 hours of flying, we finally arrived in Auckland. Exhausted and ready for bed, we tried to orient ourselves. Despite the good directions from our 'hostess' Jann to our first accommodation in Otara, a small suburb of Auckland, we had a hard time finding the bus stops. With the help of a navigation app and the friendly and open-minded New Zealanders, we managed to find our accommodation an hour later. The first bus driver was particularly special, as he had the radio turned up loud, playing classics like 'Bleeding Love' by Leona Lewis, as well as seemingly typical songs.

Once we arrived at our accommodation at 27 Cooper Crescent, we initially felt like burglars as we entered the seemingly empty house using a code to open the door. After no one responded to our friendly 'Hello', Meret looked around the hallway for the sleeping area. She quickly came back and whispered with a shocked expression, 'Axel, there are people here!'. We stood in the hallway feeling lost, as we had been too preoccupied with searching the house to remember which of the four rooms we had booked. Fortunately, a girl came out of her room shortly after and helped us find our room.

Finally in our Room 1, we were very pleased to see the bed. However, since we were both getting hungry, we decided to first visit the nearby Otara Centre. After a 10-minute walk through the surrounding block of houses, we arrived there. However, it couldn't be considered a nice area yet. This also included the supermarket, which more resembled a warehouse. Reluctantly, we bought the essentials there. This morning, our impression was confirmed when we found that the butter had already gone mouldy.

In the end, none of that mattered as we fell dead tired into our bed at 8 p.m. and slept for 12 hours.