Arrival - Day 1

First of all: The 16 1/2 hour flight from Dubai to the approximately 14000 km away Auckland was less stressful than expected. Fortunately, it ended up being just under 15 hours because we had decent tail winds south of Australia. Additionally, we had one of the few free seats next to us on the plane (A380), great! The flight from Düsseldorf to Auckland was uneventful, the most exciting thing about the flight were the movies 'Alien: Covenant' and 'What happened to Monday'. The nearly 4-hour layover at Terminal B in Dubai was okay, but Jörg had to throw away his positive impressions of Dubai's transit terminal (from 8 years ago)... Incheon Airport remains number one!

After landing, we went through the famous biosecurity check. The officials didn't seem to care about the cereal bars and hiking shoes we were wearing. The dog, who was called Officer 'goodboy' as we were told in an information video during the approach to Auckland, only sniffed our bags with little interest. We made it, we were allowed to go through the exit! New Zealand, here we come! :-))) On day 2, Janina noticed that half a chestnut or its shell was still in the outer side pocket of her backpack, from our last visit to the Christmas market. The dog must have had a cold ;-)

We arrived at our first accommodation at 12:30 pm, an apartment on Beach Road (there wasn't much beach there, mainly a harbor and yacht area) in Auckland, which we shared with the owner. We rested for a short while before heading into the city. We enjoyed a delicious burger at the vegan 'Lord of the Fries' and relaxed on a lawn in the yacht area. The Auckland Regatta had started the day before yesterday, so there were many stalls, restaurants, and music stages set up. Pretty cool! Overall, Auckland gave the impression of being the little brother of the Texan city of Austin. Whether we will become just as 'weird' here as in Austin, we could only guess, but Auckland has potential, as we found out at Giapo in the evening. Incredible ice creations with personal advice and tasting... incredibly delicious, but definitely quirky!!!

In the evening, we were warmly welcomed by the apartment owner and her friend, and then we fell into the comfortably soft bed like two rocks. We probably also dreamed of sleep that needed to be caught up with :-)