Kristin Laura

As predicted, we woke up to a rainy morning, but with our handy list of wet weather activities we ventured out into the rain decked out in our quick-dry clothing, hats, umbrella for Shawn and raincoat for me.  Because the north island just isn't enough island for us, we once again found ourselves on a ferry headed to the island of Russell. How often do you see a yacht with a helicopter on it? We strolled in the rain along the waterfront to the Russell Museum to learn about the Maori and European history of New Zealand.  The museum includes a one-fifth scale model of Cook's ship Endeavour.  The rigging is pretty amazing with numerous wooden pulleys. Next we headed to the Pompallier Mission (1841).  While waiting for our tour to begin, we strolled the gardens in the rain.  We were on the only brave souls, but it was worth the climb up the soggy hill.  I think agapanthus are a weed here.  They are everywhere...little ones grow along ...

For a moment, we were wondering if we were going to make it out of LAX.  We asked for directions and ended up outside the terminal and on a a shuttle bus to the international terminal.  I'm not sure if we could have gotten there without going outside, but it was a long way between terminals and ate into our 2.5 hour layover pretty quickly. The Air New Zealand plane was a 777 and we had upgraded our seats to a "sky couch".  That didn't work out as hoped, but it gave us all 3 seats in the row so that was good.  The conceptual drawing showed the footrest flipping out into a bed that two can sleep on.  So picture the width of a normal 3-seat airplane aisle.  Now picture Shawn and me lounging in that space...yeah, that didn't happen.  But, all in all, for a 12-hour flight it wasn't terrible. Air New Zealand in Auckland First view of New Zealand Shawn bravely tackled driving on the left side of the road.  It was even more of an adventu...