Day 16 to 18 - Auckland - Arrive

Kia Ora, New Zealand - as they say here!

The flight ✈️ from Los Angeles to Auckland with Air New Zealand in just under 12 hours was almost flawless with a perfect landing. The plane was very clean, blankets and pillows for each seat were wrapped in foil and appropriate headphones were also included. The stewards and stewardesses were also very pleasant. We felt we were in good hands. Unfortunately, the advertised freely accessible WiFi did not work. The food, however, was quite good: There were, among other things, beans, peas and mashed potatoes with chicken. Air New Zealand was closer to home for me than Lufthansa 😅. The steward waved the wine bottles and of course we hit it again 😁. The only point of criticism: Lord of the Rings wasn't included in the media library, which I can't understand at all 😥 I had to put up with the Hobbit...

Due to the flight times and time differences, we kind of skipped Thursday and started straight into Friday morning 😃. When we arrived at the airport, we got into the wrong queue. We wanted to go to passport control and thought that where all the tourists were lining up, we'd be able to go there (we couldn't see anything more precise from behind) Puppy cake! They all wanted to keep flying. But we already noticed it. At passport control we used the automated check-in to save time. But unfortunately there was no stamp in the passport 🥹. You can not have everything. Then we went to customs control. That, in turn, took some time, as the New Zealanders look very closely at the possible import of “everything” and prohibit a lot of things. But in order to protect the unique nature and flora, this is necessary. This country lives on it. At the end a police dog strutted past us but didn't strike. Thank God! There was another heart palpitation, because you never know what he'll sniff out 😅🙈🤷🏼‍♂️.

We drove to the hotel in the Tesla - Model Y - with an Uberian. That was cool. Then it was time to sleep! For a small extra charge we were able to get to our room around 9 a.m., otherwise we would have had to wait until 3 p.m.

I would describe the first impressions of Auckland as follows: clean and orderly, no strong smell in the air, green and well-kept, very good roads and lots of electric cars, residents seem very friendly to me.

You're a little afraid at first because you're really looking forward to it and the reality may be completely different than what you imagined... but it's all nonsense! Makes you want to more!

Now there's some Netflix and then Bettiii - good night ☺️