Finally here!!

After a loooonng day of travelling (28 hours total, including layover), I finally made it to Auckland. Like Samm said on her blog, the flight with Air New Zealand was great! Barely felt like it was a 13 hour flight! I was actually happy to get on another plane after spending 5 long and boring hours in Los Angeles airport. I was really looking forward to pick up my stuff in Auckland and see what kind of shape my bike was in (specially after seeing how they handled my bike box in LA!). So I got here at 7am and got a ride to my hostel (The Brown Kiwi)... great little spot a little outside of downtown. Although I was completely exausted, Samm and I decided to got for a walk to the harbour to do some catching up. It had been a long time since we had done that!
When I arrived in the city, I noticed a big poster announcing that the Cirque du Soleil was in town... since they are practically from my home town and I had never seen them perform, I thought that would be way too cool to see them here in NEw Zealand (can't believe I flew across the world to see them!). Luckily, Samm was on the same page as me and we were totally excited about getting tickets. We both agreed on a max price we were willing to pay and managed to come across a ticket booth... the woman at the booth had a big grin on her face when we asked about the show on Friday... she said we were very lucky... two people had just cancelled their VIP tickets (240$) and they were now selling them for the regular price tickets (110$). So we got to be VIP for one night! The show was incredible! It blew my mind what bodies are capable of doing! My anxiety level went up a few notch during some of the performances!! We felt like we were in a completely different world, with the colorful outfits, the music and the crazy stuff they were doing! To anyone wondering if they should spend the money to go to a Cirque du Soleil performance, DO IT! Totally worth it! I think I will plan a little weekend trip to Vegas in the next year to go see their other show "O"... I think I got hooked!
Other than that, Auckland is a nice city... bigger than I thought! It reminds me a bit of Vancouver, with the ocean close by and all the green everywhere! People here seems to be very proud of their town. The only thing annoying about here is all the hills! I actually decided to take a train out of the city on my first bike day (Sunday). I just can't picture myself (out of shape), riding all those crazy hills with my fully loaded bike amongst the insane traffic (people in Auckland drive like maniacs and I'm still getting used to the right-hand drive thing!). Anyways, I have been here for 4 days now and I am looking forward to get out to the countryside and do some riding (by the way, my bike was in good shape when I got here!). My next post will most likely be about how my butt is killing me and how much I'm having fun!!:)
Hope the -38 in Whitehorse isn't treating you too badly!
Ciao!
Genevieve