Land of the Kiwis A runner in New Zealand

Day 3: Stop. Drop. Kaboom Baby

Touchdown in Auckland at 5:20AM.

Maori Arch

My first sight of New Zealand was a Mauri welcoming... arch. The woman I had been talking to on the flight explained it to me but I cannot recall at this point. I think I was too focused on making sure I had everything for customs.

Next sight was aisles and aisles of alcohol with pretty ladies trying to sell you on the duty-freeness of the opportunity. Once again, I was a bit too focused on customs to be in the right mind to explore the options.

Finally got to the customs line. I worried for nothing. Getting through customs was far, far easier than I thought it would be. I got asked about half a dozen times what I had in the computer monitor case and was informed that Air NZ was not responsible for any damage to the monitor. I suppose they gotta cover their bases.

Finally, finally, I boarded my last 45min puddlejumper to Wellington and got picked up promptly at 8:30AM by cousin Cary.

It's on.

Well actually, it was overcast and I was incredibly tired... I still marveled at the misty view from our house at the tippity-top of Mt Victoria before unpacking and checking out my room for the first time. The room is pretty tiny but similar to a Prospect-sized room so I can't complain.

Not much time to unwind because Cary had a meet that day. Sadly they didn't accept last-minute entrants for the 3k but I did a nice 6miler easy RE (Mitch code) and actually shivered a bit while I watched Cary run an 8:46. He did the noble deed of making sure the pace was honest after a crawling 35s for the first 200m. He of course paid for the move at the end but still ran well considering he told me he slept very little the previous night (I'm guessing nervous thoughts on my behalf... ah, thanks mate).

Forget what we had for dinner but we made the executive decision to stay in for the night. As an example of my jet lag, we turned on Blood Diamond and I fell asleep within 30min (yes that's about the point in the movie all the raiding is going on...)

Goodnight