Day 123,124,125 Vancouver, Canada-Auckland, New Zealand

A seriously long day today with the 2 flights we had. After arriving at the airport we checked in for the first flight from Vancouver to Los Angeles which took us around 2 hours 30 minutes but then once in Los Angeles we had the one to Auckland which would take us around 12 hours. Once on the plane to Auckland I was hoping the journey would be alot more enjoyable with a few decent films to watch but how wrong I was. Then to make it that bit more unenjoyable I had the arsehole from hell sitting in the seat in front of me who within seconds reclined his seat to give me even less room to get comfy in, so from time to time as he slept I would give the back of his seat a good nudge as I tried to move my legs and get comfortable.
Anyway eventually I did manage to get a few hours sleep and before I knew it we were touching down on New Zealand soil. Once we all got our bags we headed over to a minibus shuttle that would take us to the hostel we had booked. Oh what joy being on the bus was. There were 6 other people on the bus and every sodding one of them was English, it was just like being back at bloody home. We had the couple who had just got married and the woman had such a strong essex accent that all I wanted to do was strangle her, and her husband who spoke like he was royalty the muppet. Next up was the old posh couple and the woman of the couple had been fined for bringing an apple into the country. She was moaning for England that it had cost her so much but I was nearly pissing myself at her and it serves her right as there were enough signs in the airport warning you not to bring certain things into the country. Hence I then started calling her the apple smuggler much to her annoyance. The other couple I didn’t really pay much attention to as by now I didn’t want to communicate with anymore English tourists. Yes I am one myself but these certain characters were enough to make me want to stick my head in a gas oven and light a match.
Anyway after the 50 minute journey from the airport that seemed to take 4 hours we made it to the hostel and hopefully wouldn’t bump into those 6 people again. First thoughts on the hostel were it was in a perfect location, very close to the city but far enough out so we wouldn’t get the noise. After dropping my bags literally on the floor I managed to get 3 hours sleep and woke up feeling pretty good but was still expecting to suffer from serious jetlag over the coming days.
Once I was up and about I emailed Fiona and arranged to meet up with her that night and then we all headed out for a look around to see what Auckland had to offer. Pretty much the first thing you see when you leave the hostel is the Sky Tower and hopefully in the next few days we would get some good weather and the views from the top would be all the more enjoyable. After spending a couple of hours having a look around I was already getting the feeling I would be quiet happy in staying here a lot longer, not just in Auckland but New Zealand as a whole.
Later on Fiona came and picked me up and we headed over to Mission Bay for a beer and then into the Indian for a nice meal.