New Zealand

I made it to New Zealand! We left hot, humid Cairns still feeling uncertain about the outcome of the US Presidential Election and landed in beautiful, cool (it's raining!) Auckland with Obama as our 44th President! A very exciting way to land in a new country that will be our home for the next year or so. We arrived at our hostel a little after midnight and spent the next 15 minutes negotiating the unpredictable elevators and then crashed on the most comfortable bed I've slept on since high school. That may explain why I slept in until almost noon. I met a nice woman named Fiona from Scotland who is also in NZ on a working holiday visa. She's looking to get to the South Island as well so we may join forces for a road trip down. I bought a phone but I haven't figured out what the number is yet (?) so I'll post more on that later. Now we're relaxing at BUNAC headquarters with a group of other working-holidayers and enjoying free internet.