Under the Southern Cross

You just can't fathom how friendly and

helpful people are here. It all began when we arrived at the car rental agency to find John's driver's license had expired. The agents did their best for us, putting us

through to the Embassy in Wellington and the Consulate in Auckland, then when that failed, helping us with transport to the city center and where to go and what to do. Arriving at the hotel, the staff helped immensely with finding ways around being car-less, to the extent of making bus reservations for us to our next city, Rotorua.
Yesterday, after the messy morning, we had lunch in the village of Devonport and met up with a couple of opera singers who sing all over the world and run tours out of NZ. John tried kumara and pumpkin salad for lunch at the Makuta Restaurant, which was beautifully done. Kumara is a local sweet potato, and the pumpkins are unlike anything in North America. Ben had a lovely clam chowder but totally unlike a Boston version. The barista, Brian, made a Ben a cappuccino, with the suitable texturing and artistic top. The name of the restaurant derives from the medium-shaded wood of which the tables are made.

The weather is quite changeable. Right now, as we write this, it is pouring with rain, but the sun will come out in time for us to enjoy the day in downtown Auckland. It's just across the bay on a ferry, with fares provided by the hotel. They also run a van to take us places on the north shore, including Devonport where we lunched yesterday.

Nearly missed our connection in LA, but we made it by racing through the parking lot from Terminal 6 to Terminal 2 with less than an hour to get boarding passes, make the terminal transition, and go through security a second time. Flight to Enzed was uneventful, though long. United had screwed up. We were late leaving Washington, the pilot made up most of the time, and then we hung around on the plane for over 20 minutes waiting for a skyway to let us off! A lot of snorting passengers. Clearly the company needs better team management at LAX.

Being car-less, our itinerary has taken some changing, too. We will do everything by bus, though we will not make it to the Waitomo Caves and the glow-wrorms, all by Inter-city bus which should be really fun since John DOESN'T HAVE TO DRIVE! Ever -- till we get home!

Ben fine, though developing a bit of laryngitis. We managed about four to five hours sleep on the plane so last night we ordered Indian takeout from, get this: Bolliwood Indian Restaurant. It arrived about 7, and we enjoyed our paneer, our lamb curry and our pakura shrimp. We went a good way toward finishing a fruity Waipara Chardonnay and collapsed.