Oct 19th – What a long way from Canada to New Zealand. Our trusty chauffeur, Fred Pamenter picked us up at 10 am on Thursday morning and delivered us to the airport. With a 3 hour wait in Toronto and a 5 hour wait in Los Angeles, the time change, and then a 3 hour wait for our apartment, it was 30 hours before we were able to put our head on a pillow and dream sweat dreams of a five week stay in this lovely country. Our first impression was if Ireland is the green country then New Zealand must be the country of double green. The range in colour everywhere you look is stupendous.

Our first stop at the airport was to pick up a cheap phone since the cost of extending our Rogers plan was felt to be too expensive. Our next stop was to pick up our rental car, a Ford Monteo. Driving on the wrong side of the road is not a problem but figuring out how to turn off the rear wiper blade was! Fortunately, they leave the User Manual in the car so we sat in the parking lot and read it but that didn’t help. George paid another visit to the counter but the representative there didn’t know so she put in a call to someone at head office. While they were waiting for a call back, I finally figured it out so then I had to park and go into the terminal building to find George. Quite an auspicious start!

Since our apartment wasn’t ready yet (at 9 am?) we went for a walk and then to the grocery store to put in some time. We also visited the AA to transfer our CAA membership. This gave us free maps, travel brochures and a discount on gas prices.

Our Quest Henderson apartment is small but well appointed for the limited time we will be here.  We are able to make our own breakfast and eat in if we want. Our first trip to the grocery store was uneventful except that we had to ask a lady to decipher the milk descriptions for us. There is no such thing as skim milk…but they do have a thin milk.

After a nap we headed out to get our bearings and have dinner. We went to a lovely area called Mission Bay and ate at a small cafe in Helliers Bay overlooking the water with the sunset in the background. Unlike home, the price on the menu includes tax and tip, so while meals seemed expensive at first blush we realized that they are pretty much similar to home. What they appear to be missing here are the middle-of-the-road restaurants such as our beloved Swiss Chalet.

Home to bed and a much needed good night’s rest.