New Zealand was beckoning urgently as we had another snowstorm the day before we were to catch our flight. Trevor felt that he just had to experience one more round of snow shovelling for good luck before leaving home. Even while travelling in the Simcoe Airport Shuttle van on the way to the airport, mother nature was trying to convince us not to leave Canada since it was snowing lightly along the route to the airport. Then, there was also a one-hour delay with our Air Canada flight to Los Angeles since that airplane was late in arriving from Montreal.We were quite glad to settle into our Radisson hotel room at Los Angeles International Airport since we didn't take possession of our room until after midnight (which would translate to after 3:00 a.m., Ontario time). Happily the weather was perfect the following day and we were able to go out for a nice lunch at the Boston Market restaurant down the street. You can see that Trevor is happily digesting his lunch in one of the photos as he stands beside the LAX sign. LAX, for all you non-travellers is the aiport code for Los Angeles. So, get all of those bad thoughts out of your head.
Our Qantas Airways flight for Los Angeles departed in the evening. Of course, that plane also was one hour late getting off the ground. Do we detect a theme here? We finally got off the ground at 9:30 pm after the airline found the luggage of the one person who decided to opt out of the flight. At least we were done with snow at this point and wouldn't have minded staying in sunny L. A.. There was no shortage of entertainment options on the Qantas Boeing 747 flight as there seemed to be an infinite number of current and older movies to choose from. And one could even play video games if one wanted to.
We were quite excited to see Trevor's cousins, Ethni and Gillian at the Auckland Airport on arrival accompanied by their husbands, Laurence and Andre. Ethni and Gillian graciously offered to make us a full breakfast at Gillian's place prior to checking into our apartment. Andre and Laurence were very happy when we accepted that invitation because they had been looking forward to a good breakfast all morning. Pictured here, you will see photos of Lorraine with Andre and Laurence, Gillian together with Andre and Ethni cooking up a storm at the stove. By the way, Lorraine is not driving the car. Remember that we drive on the left when we are Downunder.Weather in Auckland has been AWESOME since our arrival! Temperatures have ranged from 25 to 27 degrees Celsius. PERFECT!
On our first full day in Auckland, we were able to stop and take some pictures of the city skyline and some of the many boats for which the city is noted. Auckland is aptly named, the "City of Sails". We even took a picture of Buddy, the dog, in Auckland harbour floating along on his luxury yacht.
We hope you'll enjoy these photos. We'll be back soon with some more.
On our first full day in Auckland, we were able to stop and take some pictures of the city skyline and some of the many boats for which the city is noted. Auckland is aptly named, the "City of Sails". We even took a picture of Buddy, the dog, in Auckland harbour floating along on his luxury yacht.
We hope you'll enjoy these photos. We'll be back soon with some more.
