Day 1 - Valentine's Day in Auckland

So we landed in Auckland around 1pm on Valentine's Day.  It was mostly cloudy and a bit rainy when we landed, but when we left the airplane the sun came out for a brief moment so I saw that as a good omen for the trip.  After going through immigration and picking up a SIM card for my newly unlocked Galaxy 2 phone, we headed to our rental car agency to pick up our sweet new ride for the next two weeks...

...a silver Hyundai (go Korea!) Getz.

We then headed into Auckland and had no troubles finding our hostel, The Brown Kiwi.  Overall, not a bad first hostel experience in NZ.  Staff was friendly, bathrooms were clean, and it was in a pretty good location being close to a lot of trendy restaurants and cafes, and only a 20 minute walk into the city centre.  As a general rule, we are trying to stick to getting a private double room in hostels during our time in NZ which comes to around 70 NZD/night (~55 USD).  So not super cheap, but not too bad.

We each quickly took a MUCH needed shower, and then took to the streets to get some dinner and explore Auckland.  We had a good dinner at Coco's Cantina (thank you Jon & Mere for the recommendation) and then proceeded to walk downtown.  On our way we passed Gagnam Station (강남역)...

There is a ton of Korean stuff here.  Not just in the city too, as we also passed a Korean church out in the country.  Good to know though, that when Sharon and I start to crave Korean food, we won't have to go too far to get our fix.

On our walk, we also came across a really cool street performer a la David Bowie from Labyrinth.  Although he wasn't sporting the David Bowie bulge, the man could do some crazy stuff with a glass sphere.  I was very impressed.  I wish I had taken a picture or video.  Sorry.

We also came across several public service ads that at first we thought were jokes, but after further inspection we concluded were likely legit...

I guess New Zealand has a problem with drinking and frying related injuries.  Speaking of frying, we also stopped by McDonald's to get a McFlurry for desert.  Strangely enough, they didn't have Oreo flavor, but they did have one called Caramel Cookie, and it was fantastic.  You guys should come to NZ just to have one.  Seriously.

Overall, although we only spent one day in Auckland, we both got a very good feel from it.  Very chill, relaxed, diverse, and beautiful city.

That's it for now.  Day 2 and hopefully 3 coming tomorrow.