Tommy & Rhonda's Travels

Well, we finally made it!  After a long trip, we arrived in Auckland.  It started with a flight to LA and about 8 hrs there where I tried on some wetsuits, we ran some errands, stopped by the Russo's to say hi to Christina and the kids and met Jason for a little bit before heading off to the airport.  The flight was almost a total disaster as the ticket agent assigning seats said we had an isle and middle (and its was 3, 3, 3) and when we got there we had 2 middle seats (it was 3, 4, 3).  Luckily, a nice couple had both isle seats and switched one with us so we could be together and have an isle seat.  The flying time was only 12 hours and mostly dark so I got some decent sleep, Rhonda not so much.  When we finally arrived, the weather was beautiful and we were very happy to be in New Zealand.  After riding the bus to the hotel (with a few block walk) Rhonda took a nap and I got things organized and we headed out to explore.  Auckland is a beautiful city, right on the water and very clean.  Its so similar to San Francisco...hilly, on the water, ferries to take across to the town of Devenport (kind of like Sausalito), and very crisp weather.  We took the ferry over to Devenport, explored there, climbed Mt. Victoria for some great views of Auckland and the surrounding areas.  After riding back to Auckland, we explored some more and headed back to the Oaks on Hobson.  Rhonda took another nap, I went for an awesome run and then we headed out to dinner.  I got to explore some fun parts of Auckland on the run as I ran all the way to the harbour bridge which was nice.  We just walked to a place very close to our hotel for dinner and about halfway thru, I started to crash and I think Rhonda was crashing all day!  We finished up our meal (not very tasty) and went home and crashed hard.  It had been a long day and it was already Tuesday night!