I left Toronto at noon on Tuesday and arrived in Auckland on Thursday at 6:30am. A bit of an odd feeling to be in the air for 17 hours and losing an additional 18 hours due to timezones but I felt pretty good when I landed and wasn’t really jet lagged for some reason. I guess the Halcion did its job because I slept most of the second flight.
Air New Zealand was pretty good..I had never flown internationally and not been in business class so I was a little concerned about that but the seats were actually pretty big and I was comfortable. I was able to switch from a middle seat last minute to a window seat which was a huge win…:-)
Since I had applied for a visa and was electronically approved I was expecting to have to provide some proof/documentation to support all the stuff I had filled out but for whatever reason the lady just stamped my passport and told me to keep moving… 
Funny how I get stressed about stupid things like that and it turns out to be nothing. I had visions of them rejecting my visa application on some technicality and putting me on a flight back to Canada and not even getting to see Sheila..:-(
Stepping out of the airport it was like mid-20′s and really sunny which was a nice change from the Toronto/Minneapolis weather.
We ended up spending most of the day just hanging out at the apartment and catching up on lost time. Around dinner though we decided to go to Takapuna since it was such a beautiful day.
Photos from Takapuna:
Flip flops + shorts in December...nice!
After a walk on the beach we went to a “hole in the wall” Chinese dumpling place and had dinner. Those of you that know me and my eating habits (steak and potatoes or lasagna) can probably guess that the dumpling place was not my pick but it was really good. Sheila is a little more adventurous about food than I am but I always end up liking the things she picks…:-)
-Clayton