Auckland to Wellington

There won’t be many pictures today, since we left Auckland before sunrise and we’ll be on the train to Wellington until after sunset. I was hoping to take pictures from the train, but the glare on the windows is horrible. All you’d be able to see would be pictures of my reflection, and as beautiful as that is, it doesn’t warrant much space on this blog. But you’ll have to take my word for it, New Zealand scenery is beautiful. It looks somewhat like England, but the trees are different and the land is much hillier. I did get a picture of a mountain from one of the stops, and a picture of Josephine getting back on the train. 

We’ve only been here three days, but I’m very surprised by how well this trip is going. I’ve been planning it for so long that I’ve had time to think of all the things that could go wrong. I had plans and backup plans and pages of printed maps and information. But we haven’t gotten lost, we’ve stuck to our itinerary, and so far we seem to be having a streak of good luck. Our flight over here passed very quickly, we got upgraded to a private room at the Auckland hostel, and our Hobbiton Tour had only six people on it, counting us. The tours immediately before and after us had about thirty people each. Our tour guide pointed out that some people pay huge fees for private tours and we got a nearly private tour for the price of a regular tour. Also, we got to see Pirates of the Caribbean 4 last night in IMAX 3D in the only IMAX theater in the whole country of New Zealand, which happened to be a ten minute walk from our hostel! The movie itself was nothing amazing, but we were glad to sit down and it was very entertaining. It did set a new record for me, as it was the first movie I’ve ever seen in IMAX 3D, and also the most expensive movie I’ve ever paid for. The tickets cost $18.50 each, and that was only because we got a student discount. The full price tickets were more than that! This is really a very expensive country, but since we’re only here for five days, we probably can’t spend too much.