Touching Down in New Zealand

So I got in yesterday. The flight was in two parts: BWI to LAX, then LAX to Auckland. I had to pack the bike in a box to put in on the pain, which almost turned into a disaster. I waited until the day/night before the flight to pack up the bike, thinking it wouldn't be too difficult of a task. The guys at the local bike shop said all that had to be done was remove the wheels, turn the handlebars, remove the pedals, and add plenty of padding to the box. No way. My mother and I spent all of the night before wrestling with the bike. Getting everything to fit in the box, making sure everything was tied down enough that it wouldn't shift while in transit, aligning everything so that it would just fit in the box. If you ever find yourself in a situation where you need to pack up a bike, it's probably just easier to take it into a bike shop and have them do it for you. That's definitely what I plan to do for the return trip. Eventually everything fit properly though, and after a lot of tape it was ready to ship. See picture below.



Packing it up turned out to be only the first hurdle. Once we got to BWI, United felt the need to slap on not just one, but two extra charges before they would accept the bike on the plane. The first charge was simply because I was taking a bike/oversized box onto the plane. The second was because the box weighed 61 pounds, 11 pounds over the acceptable weight of luggage. Nevermind that I was allowed to check two suitcases at 50 pounds each. Nevermind that the bike was the only piece of luggage I was checking. Nevermind that United couldn't even give me anything in writing stating that there was an extra fee for bikes. After waiting them out for about an hour, they eventually dropped the extra weight fee ($125) and I only had to pay the fee for a bike, which was $175. The flight from LAX to Auckland was handled by Air New Zealand, and they gave me no problems at all about the bike. The guy at the Air New Zealand counter took one look at the bike, slapped a luggage ticket on it, and wished me a nice flight. Completely hassle-free.

Some general info about New Zealand:

The US dollar is still strong here. The exchange rate works out to almost 2 USD to 1 New Zealand Dollar. Definitely a plus.

Since it's the southern hemisphere it is summer here. The weatheris very warm, usually high 70s to 80s during the day. The sun is also very strong; I am applying very liberal amounts of sunscreen, hopefully it will be enough.

No pennies are used. All of the shops/stores/restaurants/etc round subtotals to the nearest ten cents. I'm not sure exactly what is the cutoff for whether the total is rounded up or down. A total of $7.05 will be rounded down to $7, and a total of $7.55 will be rounded up to $7.60. Any money you lose by rounding up you gain back by rounding down. It works really well for avoiding carrying around a boatload of small change. The US should adopt a similar system.

I am staying in Auckland for two nights. The hostel I am staying at is Lantana Lodge, about a 15 min walk east of the city center.

There are a lot of Asian tourists and residents, and thus a lot of small Asian restaurants. I went to one tonight for dinner.

Will be exploring the city more tomorrow. Below is a picture of the city.