Auckland 12/21/12 - 12/23/12

Arriving to Auckland was a sad moment, because we had to part ways with our good friend Wally, the best white wagon in the land, and it meant we were within 48 hours of leaving NZ. 

After checking into our hostel, letting go of our camping gear, turning in Wally, and shedding a few tears, we arranged to meet up with Hamish, our friend we met in Peru who lives in Auckland.  We went out for dinner and a few drinks and really enjoyed catching up with a friend we met along the way.  Thank you Hamish for showing us a good time in Auckland!

We spent our one full day we had in the city walking down the main strip of Queens Street which as a plus had some huge Christmas decorations for Kristin.  We made it to the Sky Tower; however, the sky walk and tower jump were definitely out of our modest price range.

The next morning, we made it to the airport with plenty of time and checked in with no problems (this time we were ready and had our bus tickets printed as proof of our onward travel out of Singapore, even though they didn't ask for it).  No problems, until we asked about checking our baggage.  The lady kindly informed us that we had not indicated that we had any baggage.  As it turns out, we booked our flights on Expedia  which didn't ask us about baggage and we didn't think anything of it.  Apparently for Jet Star airlines, you have to do it more than 24 hours in advance, otherwise it is ridiculously expensive- $160 NZD PER bag up to 15 kg each (that was definitely not in our budget).

Hmmm, luckily, and luckily is a very relative term, we could send both bags for only $160 if they were a COMBINED weight of 15 kg.  So, we tore into our bags, threw away lots of toiletries, heavy items, and anything else we could, and the rest went into our small packs.  Kristin's small pack was already pretty full, so Matt also stuffed a plastic sack full of clothes and carried that on.  We took our 2 bags from 29 kg to 14.9 kg.  Airports seem to be a place full of surprises and excitement for us. :-) 

Oh, did we mention that budget airlines provide zero meals during an 11 hour flight? Yea, we were not aware of this, but thank goodness we had 1 bag of nuts with us to hold us over.  After paying an unexpected $160 for our bags, we didn't want to spend any more money.  Despite the small speed bump at the airport, we were still very excited about our flight to Singapore because we were going to SE Asia, somewhere completely new and different.  Bring it!