We spent a full day and night in Auckland visiting our niece Katie and her partner Tom. Katie greeted us at the airport. So nice to see her beautiful face (especially after 20 + hours of flying). The flight from Tokyo to Auckland had what we think may have been the very first 1st class ever created. Our seats barely reclined. A sweet little, loud baby sat next to us! Interesting though that the flight attendant put a baby crib onto the wall (not sure how they engineered it). Didn't quiet her any though. Her poor Mom did everything she could and at one point, passed out in the midst of it all. (This was an 11 hour nighttime flight on Air New Zealand).

Katie took us on a nice walk near her apartment in the Grafton area - up to Mount Eden. Lovely view of the city although quite windy as the remains of the Cyclone which hit Brisbane, Australia was en route. We enjoyed a great lunch with Katie and Tom at Cafe 23, and later dinner at Galebraith Ale House for some brews and local fare (e.g. lamb ribs). We learned that in NZ it is not customary to tip and also, one goes up to the counter to order the food and later the servers bring it out. Katie mentioned they want people to feel more at home - just order when you're ready to. Makes sense to us - a lot more efficient.

The next morning during breakfast at our nearby apartment hotel called the Waldorf (not to be mistaken with the Waldorf Astoria mind you) - comfortable place yet definitely not the latter....gale force winds howled outside as the rain poured sideways...we weren't sure our flight would take off. Yet several hours later it had all calmed down and Katie so sweetly took us to the port (in the midst of her part-time job, full-time masters program, and active running schedule (as she runs 50-100K's - yes I said 50-100 - I used to run the ones without all the zero's as in 5K - 10K's. She even did her training run - a mere 10K - in the cyclone. We're quite impressed with our niece and wish we had even a fraction of her energy! We look so forward to spending more time with both Katie and Tom on our return to the North Island.