update and random observations

Hey all,
We've made it safe and sound and have spent the last couple days in Auckland. We just bought a car today and tomorrow we'll be driving up north to Cable Bay.

On the people of New Zealand:
I love the people of New Zealand, it's been my favorite part so far. Gay and I haven't had one bad experience interacting with the locals. In fact we're both blown away by their warm demeanors and how patient they are with our tourist questions. We've had a hard time getting used to the bus system in Auckland, but there's one refreshing difference between MUNI and Auckland's MAXX or "Busabout" system. People actually interact with the drivers. You're suppose to tell the driver where you're going. The driver actually gives you correct change on the spot. We've seen drivers discuss things with passengers for upwards of 5 minutes at a time and it's OK. Nobody starts gritting their teeth or exhaling deep sighs.

A bit about Auckland:
It's is a beautiful city with a huge tower called the "Sky Tower" in the middle. The Sky Tower is much like Seattle’s space needle, only this is New Zealand, the land of adventure sports, and to remind you of that, there are 3 ways to get down from the tower. 1) Go down the "lift" (elevator) like most people. 2) Repel down the **outside** of the tower 3) Bungee jump off of the tower. We've been staying @ a hostile in the business district which has been great as far as accessibility, but not so great as far as charm. Last night (Saturday night) the downtown was packed with teenagers and cars with loud sub-woofers. On the bright side, it's comforting to know bad taste is universal but on the other hand I think our experience of Auckland has been distorted by our locale.

More to come..
As I've said we just bought a car which was an experience in itself. We went to an outdoor car "auction" out in one of the suburbs and ended up buying a car from an incredibly nice couple about our age who moved here from Zimbabwe four years ago. Gay did the initial test drive because I'm not confident in my "other side of the road" skills. Plus, Gay thinks I'm the worst driver in the world and there may be some truth to that. So tomorrow hopefully I'll get to drive a bit on our way up North. I still want to post some pictures but it's been difficult as there is not one wireless hotspot in the city.

-Jon