From Down Under

We have arrived at our first destination in New Zealand, Owen River Lodge, near Murchison on the South Island.  We made the trip from Los Angeles to Auckland, NZ (North Island) last night on a Boeing 777 in 11 hours and 40 minutes.  We lifted off from LAX at 10PM PST and touched down in Auckland at 6:40 AM NZDT this morning.  We started out at 28,000 ft and later climbed to 35,000 as our fuel burned off.  The highest ground speed that I saw was 624mph on my personal monitor.  We had "sky sofa" seats that recline and make into a pretty decent bed.  I slept about 6-6.5 hours on the way down.  Each sky sofa has its own music and movie selections.  We also had our own electrical outlets, ipod plug-ins, etc.  It was a very civilized way to travel.  The Air New Zealand crew served a "lovely" meal as the Kiwis say.  The service was superb.  

At 10:30 AM NZDT we boarded another flight on a DeHavilland turbo-prop for the 70 minute flight to Nelson, NZ (South Island).  From there we had a 90 minute drive to our lodge.  We did stop on the way at an authentic NZ pub for a fish & chips lunch.  It was great.  I am told that the beers and the wines here are superb.  

The first day of fishing is tomorrow.  My guide's name is Greg.  I drew him because we are both very hard of hearing.

One piece of bad news - The SPOT Tracker feed to the blog blew up today.  It worked fine before we left LAX.  I have a hunch it is because I am logging on from NZ.  The SPOT Tracker is working flawlessly, but the feed to the blog is fighting me.  I think that as soon as I get some sleep, the problem will be temporary.  

I hope that we have lots of fish tales to regale you with tomorrow evening.  The Wheatleys are out in front of the lodge on the river now trying to draw first blood.