Into the Land of the Kiwi.

After a whirlwind of wedding activity, Katie and I finally found ourselves packed, through security, and waiting at the airport for our flight to Auckland. To be honest, I can barely remember what happened between Sunday afternoon and Monday night. One moment, we were hanging out at the park with our friends, and the next we were walking onto a plane. We'd been warned of this, but experiencing it is another thing: the time right before, during, and right after your wedding is a blur.

Our flight was actually very nice. We were in a two-seater in the back of the plane (there were several of these in a row, the so-called "honeymoon seats") and mentioned to the couple in front of us that it was, indeed, our honeymoon. Shortly thereafter, a flight attendant showed up with bubbles for us, and two of the flight attendants separately gave us lists of things to do while in NZ. We were happy to note that several of the recommendations from one of them were already on our list! Katie's planning comes through again.

After a 12 hours of flying and a moderate amount of sleep, we landed at 5 AM in Auckland, caught a cab, and dropped our bags at the hotel. Auckland is only 4 hours behind San Francisco right now, so we didn't expect too much jet lag; then again, we didn't sleep that well on the plane. Either way, with plenty of time to kill before our 11 AM wine tour and 6 PM dinner reservations, we decided to grab some food at Mecca Viaduct Restaurant, after a (much appreciated) recommendation from Liz Byrne. Mecca was delicious, and next to a marina, so we sat outside and enjoyed our breakfast while watching the boats. We next went to the Sky Tower, which offers a 360-degree view of the city from high above. It was there that our lack of plane sleep started to catch up with us, so we grabbed some caffeine and watched some cricket highlights for a while. (The Cricket World Cup is going on right now, so we'll probably touch on that more later.) After the drinks, we walked down to the ferry building to catch a ride to Waiheke and begin our wine-tour island adventure!

Waiheke is a beautiful island of beaches, rolling hills, and plenty of trees and greenery. The locals are very vocal about their disdain of Auckland, and hilariously expressed their concern of "foreigners" visiting all the time. That said, they were incredibly hospitable to our tour group, and we tasted some very good wines on several beautiful properties. My personal favorite was Wild on Waiheke, which is a winery/brewery that also features large format chess, archery, and a physical playground. Their wine is good; their beer is better.

After Wild, we went to Mudbrick, which was the only winery where we made a purchase: one bottle of bubbles, and one Merlot. We headed back to the mainland, where we finally checked into our room at Hotel DeBrett, showered, and changed for dinner at Meredith's. Meredith's is a fine-dining restaurant on the other side of Auckland, so we had to take a cab to get there through some of the more depressing-looking areas of the city. Upon arrival, we were seated along with one other couple (at different tables, obviously) and presented with an extensive wine list and two menus: the 5-course, and the 8-course. We chose the 8-course with wine pairings, and were treated to excellent service and exquisite food. Thankfully, Katie took pictures of every dish, which I especially appreciate because we both started fading fast halfway through dinner and I can't remember the second half very well. Still, I know I enjoyed it, and we made it through to the end.

We made a note to visit Cloudy Bay in Marlborough, because this was so good.

When we returned, we had a bottle of champagne from the hotel waiting for us. Rallying in the name of celebration, we popped the bottle, toasted to a great honeymoon, and passed out. I woke up extremely well-rested this morning, and I have a feeling there will be no further jetlag this trip!

More this evening. Oh, yeah: Welcome back.