Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?

 We left Honolulu at 1:00 PM yesterday. Well, no. We left Honolulu at 1:00 PM on Monday. Today is Wednesday. We landed at 8:40 PM Tuesday after a 9 hour flight. The International Date Line makes my head hurt. Even my Apple Watch was confused; for most of the day today it insisted it was Tuesday. 

We had a bit of a panic when we got to the airport on Monday because we didn’t know we needed permission from New Zealand immigration to enter the country. Turns out there’s an app for that. We downloaded it, filled it out, and after we submitted the info it said “Most are approved within 72 hours.” Yikes. Luckily for us they under-promised and over-delivered: we were approved less than thirty minutes later, walked through TSA pre-check, and found some lunch with a much-needed cocktail.

New Zealand is also very careful about protecting their agriculture and ecosystem. The carry-on luggage was sprayed with an insecticide after we landed (we were assured it was completely safe and non-toxic except, I presume, to bugs) and we had to declare not only any food items but also any hiking or camping gear that had been previously used. Our boots passed inspection, they let David keep the turkey jerky, and we got to the rental car about 90 minutes after we landed.

I am very grateful that David is doing the driving because even as a passenger, this left-side-of-the-road thing terrifies me. We had no difficulty finding the AirBnB apartment, which is a few blocks from the water in an up-and-coming neighborhood. This place has all mod cons, including USB-A and USB-C outlets on each side of the bed. We got everything plugged in and fell into bed.

View from the balcony (in the morning)

This morning we walked across Victoria Park to a supermarket that opened early, acquired eggs, ham, cheese, and butter, and returned to make our breakfast. David had coffee with a local glassblower and I went to the coffee shop on the ground floor for a latte, did the dishes, and figured out where to buy a cooler. We prefer to stay in apartments rather than hotels so we have a bit more space, someplace to sit other than the bed and the ability to cook our own breakfast. Since we’ll be in New Zealand for just over three weeks we will cook some of our dinners as well - even I can’t imagine a whole month of restaurant meals - and so we need a cooler to keep food safe in the car. When David got back, we headed south a little ways to Mauku to see a waterfall. Have I mentioned how much I love waterfalls? This one is on private property with a small entry fee and they’ve built a water garden and event space as well as a café. It’s not the most peaceful place - the waterfall sits right next to a busy lumberyard  - and much of the water garden is dilapidated. The waterfall itself was lovely and we had a delicious lunch in the café.

We drove back to Auckland and ended up at Mitre10, which is the NZ equivalent of Home Depot right down to the orange signage. They had the cooler we needed, and we made it back to the apartment and walked over to a closer grocery to stock up on a few other things. We couldn’t resist a stop at the local bottle shop right across the street for a couple of bottles of New Zealand white wine.

We spent some quiet time at the apartment and went to the QT hotel for drinks at the roof bar and dinner at Esther. Sooo good. Now time to re-combobulate our suitcases and get ready for Rotorua tomorrow via the glowworm caves!