It’s true!  We just landed in Aukland, New Zealand, and I’m here to put all the confusion to rest…the toilets really DO flush the opposite way on this side of the world!  Now that that’s settled, it’s time to let the fact that we’re really on the other end of the planet sink in (which I’m pretty sure it hasn’t).  I’m just worried about getting to the south island where we’ll be spending the next two weeks.  It would certainly appear as though all the major hurtles are out of the way (aka the three and a half hour flight to Los Angeles and the thirteen hour flight here to Aukland), but I don’t want to jinx anything *knocks on wood*.   From here we are just one hour and fifty minutes away from our final destination, and some much anticipated rest and showers.  

We got overseas on one of these bad boys:

It was awesome to say the least.  It was by far the biggest plane I’ve ever been on, and certainly the first one with built-in personal TV’s.  These TV’s, by the way, allowed you to watch movies and shows, play games, listen to radio stations or CD’s, AND had a built-in “flight tracker” function that allowed us to see where we were at all times throughout our journey.  They also gave us a blanket, pillow, two meals, and a bag of snacks!  Maybe this is all normal, but I haven’t flown much, so for me it’s quite the adventure.  We crossed the International Dateline on this flight, which ultimately resulted in the loss of a day.  We took off form L.A. on Monday, January 30, and landed in Aukland on Wednesday, February 1.  That’s right, on Tuesday, January 31, Brenna, Amanda, Christine, Kaylee and Joe did not exist, along with the rest of the passengers aboard flight QF 26.  Anyway, it’s time to go, off to Queenstown!