We're in the Future, the Distant Future

As it turns out, you do not need a DeLorean or a Tardis to travel into the future - all you have to do is spend 16.5 hours on a plane (4.5 from Chicago to LA, 12 from LA to Auckland) and fly to the other side of the world! After "only" 24 hours of travel time, we left Chicago on Wednesday afternoon, and arrived in Auckland early Friday morning. We were thrilled to find that all 310 pounds of luggage made it here safely, and found customs was not nearly as intimidating as we had been told it might be. Once we assured them that we had no fresh fruit, that our hiking boots were clean (and brand new), and that my yarn was processed and ready to be knit, we were on our way!

Work arranged for a driver to take us to our short-term corporate housing, so the process of getting here was fairly smooth. Once we arrived, we showered and napped and then got to work on our to do list!

Clockwise, from top left: Our new office, complete with bean bags outside; New Zealand currency; a view of the city from Ponsonby; a preview of Kiwi grocery shopping - lots of things that look familiar, but somehow nothing is quite the same

People keep asking us for pictures and stories about Auckland, but the sad truth is that moving to a place isn't like vacation - there are things that must be taken care of before any real fun or exploration can take place. These past few days our priorities have been getting phone service, activating our bank accounts, getting tax ID numbers and finding a place to live after our short-term rental expires next week. All of these are made more difficult by not having the others - the tax ID application requires an address to send the ID number to - and you can't get paid without one, the company that has the best rates for transferring money overseas requires proof of address from the NZ bank to allow transfers, landlords all want to communicate via text or phone rather than email, etc. etc.

We eventually got all of this taken care of, but it took longer than you might think, and the only thing that was as easy as we hoped was getting phone service (thanks largely to Rob doing some research ahead of time). Combine all this with the fact that it's been raining since we arrived and I have a bum foot (I twisted my ankle a week before we left, and it's still not 100% up to snuff - making longer walks a little difficult, especially since Auckland is so hilly), and we haven't had a chance to do too much exploring. We did get an hour or two of no rain on Sunday to walk up to Ponsonby, a neighborhood just outside the city center.

Clockwise from top left: Victoria Park; Vespas at a scooter store - we'll probably have to wait a year before we can afford one (licensing fees alone are $500/year!!); someone jumping from Sky Tower; a second-hand bookstore in Ponsonby; resting our feet and grabbing a beer at Victoria Park Market

Now that our most urgent to-dos are taken care of a full 6 days before we start work, we have plenty of time to wander around - and might even rent a car so we can cover more ground (and buy some things we need for our new home before we move in next week)!  I'll post more about the new apartment after we move on the 21st, but here's a bit of a preview:  it's a one-bedroom plus large balcony in a fantastic building in a fantastic location, it was on the market for less than two days before we snatched it up, there was competition from multiple people for it, we were thrilled to hear we beat them for it, and it is a full 400 square feet!  That is not a typo.... or the smallest apartment we saw. Some ads would even refer to it as a "large one-bedroom."  To the right is a fairly accurate floorplan - the kitchen is about as long as a standard bathtub!

The view from our hotel window... kinda makes all the rain worth it!