Arrived!

Well after scooting half way across the world for 27hours, i arrived in Auckland this morning to a beautiful day of sunshine. The flight over was really good, no hold ups anywhere and really smooth, painless transfers. I landed a right result from London to LA, scoring myself into a "cot" seat which gives you all the legroom of sitting by an emergency exit, but none of the responsibility! All i had infront of me was enough room to lay a cot down, but there was no cot to be put there so i strecthed out in my window seat, enjoyed the almost continuous sunset and settled in to the journey.
11hours later we gracefully touched down at LAX and the sun then finally set after chasing it halfway across the globe, and after clearing immigration i collected my bags, walked out of arrivals onto the street, only to dissapear back inside to departures 30 seconds later. Quantas airlines were takin gme from LA to Auckland, and it was an incredibly comfortable flight, well stocked on fresh fruit snacks and juice whenever you wanted it, as well as two fairly impressive plane meals. I got talking to Canadian family at the gate before boarding who ran a farm on the Alberta/Saskatchewan border who were en-route to a wedding in Austrailia. Keen to hear about my onward travels, Ann (the mother) got my facebook and also gave me their address saying that i should stop by if i was back in Canada anytime. they were really nice and good fun to talk to whilst waiting to board. They were sitting only a few rows behind me on the plane so we talked a bit on the flight when getting up to wander round the plane and stretch legs.
The flight over was smooth and made for some fantastic viewing, i was gutted to have left my camera in the overhead as we passed right over the top of a huge weather front which stretched as far as the eye could see and was made up of billowing cumulo nimbus clouds marking the leading edge. Coming closer to NZ, the cloud cover changed to an almost complete blanket which dissapeared as quickly as it had appeared and NZ was in view. The flight over the coast was amazing, and Auckland itslef was so colourful from the air.
An efficient landing and immigration put me straight through to baggage claim in a matter of minutes, something UK airports could learn a thing or two from! After declaring all my hiking/climbing gear, i had to unpack in and fill forms out for it to be sent through a cleansing process which brought my boots out shiny, a drastic improvement from the muddy state at which i was attempting to enter the country with! With customs cleared, i walked out into arrivals just as Clare was walking in with Charlie in the push chair, perfect timing for the pick up.
A short drive later though some really nice looking neighbourhoods and we arrived back at Clare and Tony's house where lunch was grabbed before heading out for a short drive to the nearby 'Cornwall Park' to got see One Tree Hill, a beautiful viewpoint which allows you to look out over all of Auckland. Getting a rough sense of directions and locations, the sun was getting a little too high in the sky for Charlie who was due his afternoon nap so we headed back to Clares. Onto the laptop to send emails of safe arrivals, this is where i am up to now on my trip to NZ. The weekend looks like it'll be spent sorting out a couple of bits with the bank, getting my bearings and hopefully out on Tony's fishing boat too, as well as an invite to a BBQ on sunday already. Things are shaping up pretty well and i've only been in country for 5hours... :)