We made it to Dunedin!!

As you all know, Jan 24th we flew out of Chicago to LAX then on to Auckland. Pocket fit into my carry-on for the long trip. Mary (my niece) was sweet and let him come along on the journey to see the far side of the world. The flight was okay -- not as horrible as one would expect a 12 hour flight would be. Of course in Auckland we discovered all of our baggage was missing, and we missed a connecting flight. When we finally got to Dunedin the hotel was very nice and helped us with the airlines & we finally got all of our luggage in about 48 hrs or so. Customs wasn't as bad as we were lead to believe...of course we weren't bringing anything "bad" in like food or anything but I don't think they even looked at the bike and hiking things. We did look a little silly with sweaters and jackets in Auckland since it was shorts weather there. Of course we had just come from Chicago where it was something like 2 degrees. It made it easier for Haxby (Dan's advisor) to find us at Dunedin airport when he picked us up. Of course, that airport is fairly small -- he only had to pick us out from like 30 other people most of whom were getting into cars and things.