Auckland, New Zealand

Auckland was my next stop... to go meet up with mom! Mom decided to come visit me along my travels and this is where she found me... though a few bumps in the road before then!
Mom, being the best mom ever... booked us into a four star hotel. She was supposed to get there before me... but it turns out her flight got delayed and she missed her connecting flight in LA. It sounds like she met some interesting people though- a diamond dealer, an Auckland native, and a hopeless romantic going to meet his love.
Mom finally got to the hotel as I was taking a much needed nap, after all it was the day after V-fest! American Airlines, my least favorite airline (you will recall that tid bit from a previous post) lost her luggage... with my AVEDA products... after backpacking for so long even face wash seems like a great luxury!
We had wonderful dinner together at Thai Chili... very yummy, and it was great to catch up. We were both pooped and hit the bed pretty early.
The next day we realized Auckland was a dump!!! Seriously nothing redeeming about this city as you will later read. It is dirty, big buildings (stop thinking NY)... there are no charming neighborhoods or eateries and the shopping just stinks! The restaurants are either fast food or expensive places, even if the food is mediocre. There is no in between... it's really interesting, Australia was somewhat like that too.
Mom and I went to the travel agent and we booked our lives away for the next 8 days... we had to be out of the hotel, packed, in a cab to the airport by the hours end... we were determined not to spend a minute more than we had to in Auckland!
We were off to Queenstown...