Flight from Wellington to Auckland involved a window seat.

And a sunset.

The flight from Auckland to Vancouver, however, did not involve a window seat.

In any case, I arrived in Canada. My baggage arrived in Canada. My baggage and I were reunited in Canada.

Marvelous.

Then I had to go leave my baggage while I stood in a queue for, uh.. an hour and a half.

But it’s okay! After queueing for an hour and a half I have a work permit which is valid until April 10, 2009. And when I finished with that, my baggage was where I left it.

Nice.

I found a taxi. The taxi person took me where I wanted to go. No drama ensued. It cost me $30. That kicks the ass of trying to deal with the weirdness of foreign country buses.

I find it distressing at a deep level that people here drive on the wrong side of the road; but, I think, I notice more that they are sitting on the wrong side of the car. I’m also not sure if it’s a quirk of this hotel, but on/off switches also seem to be opposite.

Turns out the hotel also has free wireless. Awesome.

And I can see stuff from the balcony.

Also: I am able to carry all of my possessions unaided. Clumsily, but unaided. I feel like perhaps I still dragged far too much stuff with me (I think I had ~38kg of checked luggage).