made it!

So I've arrived!! After many gruelling hours of sitting, waiting, more sitting, more waiting and on and on, I have touched down on solid ground in Auckland. While I did get a little bit of sleep on the plane, I think I will sleep well tonight (if I can stay awake to sleepy time... my watch says it's 6:20 but my computer thinks it's 2:23AM!).
My only exciting sight-see so far is the Sydney Opera House - from above, in a plane. Still cool though... that sucker is BIG!

Hopefully tomorrow I can work on planning the first leg of the journey (ideally the Northland) and also get out to explore Auckland a little. I'd also like to talk to a professor of ABA at the University here that I've emailed if I get time.

Staying in a hostel... well... it's interesting. First of all, it turns out that I booked in a different Base Auckland than I thought I was. I read the review and decided to book in BaseAuckland, but instead I booked at BaseAuckland Central. No biggie. It's just massive, and the "girl's only" deluxe floor is really just a wing with no bathrooms in it... so you still have to go to the co-ed side of the floor to use the loo. The shower had a pretty interesting twist, actually. I think it was a water/money saving device. You know the sinks where you press the handle down and you get maybe 10 seconds of water before the handle pops back up again (NLG has them)? The shower is like this... so if you want a continuous stream of hot water you have to make sure you're pressing that button in every 10-15 seconds. It's kind of a brilliant move environmentally, but as a spoiled wasteful American I was a little thrown off at first. Whatever... hot water is hot water and I just needed to was the travel-stink off!
The other thing about staying in a hostel is that I feel OLD!! My roommate (so far just 1) is also not a teeny bopper though, so that's good.

The really good thing, though, is that a lot of the tours & travel companies have bases right here, so tomorrow I just need to walk downstairs to plan my trip. There's also a bar/restaurant on site... and I am getting very hungry.
Finally: the Qantas portion of my trip was much more enjoyable than my American Airlines portion. Qantas still believes in the old-fashioned notion that they should FEED you when they confine you in one place for many hours at a time. AA now charges for food unless you're first class. Pretty frikkin cheap.

Oh! And Dave! I finally got to see "Up in the Air" on my flight... very thematically appropriate. It made me wish I had a special preferred card and got to fly first class. Except not in a deep philosophical way. The seats just looked comfier.

More tomorrow!!