1st Day in New Zealand!

Hola & Aloha mi Familia and Friends,
Well here we are! We made it safely into Auckland yesterday, right over the dateline and into the city of sails. Unbelievably beautiful! We are now certified time-travellers, having skipped a whole day in the process. Perhaps even more shocking, we didn't get into any accidents driving from the airport to the hotel in the center of Auckland last night. I find it absolutely astounding that someone will give me a brand new SUV and turn me loose on a road system where everything is bass ackwards, even the controls inside the car. So New Zealanders beware: if you see someone frantically engaging the windshield wipers, take that as a turn signal because I'm coming over into your lane. We spent the night in Auckland and had a great dinner at a Belgian beer bar (say that 5 times fast after having a few beers!). We had a great dinner and even better beers, and woke up early for our first trip out of the city.
Today we drove up to Whangarei and are headed into Tutukaka, up on the northwest corner of the north island. All the place names are in the Maori (native New Zealanders) language, which has the same Polynesian roots, so at least we're not slaughtering the pronunciation, as our Hawaiian language skills are coming in handy. Tomorrow we're diving in the Poor Knights Marine Reserve, one of the top 10 dive sites in the world.
Much love to you all, and we'll post pictures soon!
Jack & Dani