Friday was a long day, we slept o.k. on the airplane and arrived in Auckland, New Zealand early in the morning to change planes for the last flight in our journey to Australia. Each one of our three flights was delayed so that by the time we made it through customs and to the baggage claim we were about an hour behind schedule. After watching all the other suitcases get pulled off the carousel I was perfectly content to wait for more bags to come, but Jenny knew something was wrong when there was no one else waiting. After asking an employee she convinced me our luggage had not arrived. Jenny talked to the people at the baggage desk and the took the phone number and address of the people we were staying with to deliver the bags when they arrive. So with only our carry-on luggage we left the baggage claim area to see Jenny's new boss, Dr. Michael Good, waiting to pick us up. We had a nice chat as Dr. Good drove us to the address of the temporary accommodation in Gold Coast we had lined up over the internet. However, when we got there we were surprised that the house did not look like it did online. There was a beat up Toyota car with a small trailer parked in the steep driveway in front of a pool I thought I recalled from the online photo but with a lot more leaves and other trash in it. There were construction tools laying all around the pool and the house behind it looked shaky with garage being partially dismantled. The man at the house greeted us and immediately said "you were supposed to call before you came!" My heart sank, I was starting to think that all of our good planning was falling through. Then, he said we are supposed to go to his other house. When we got to the other house the situation was much improved. The property was an eight bedroom vacation home surrounded by palms and fruit trees with a large pool in the backyard. The kitchen was very modern and the living area had a 30 foot glass wall that could be slid open to an equally sized patio area under a roof. After taking a much needed shower Dr. Good took us downtown to our new bank to open our accounts and get the money we had previously sent. Then we went to Griffith University were I got a crash course in driving on the right side of the vehicle on the left side of the road. Mr. Good turned the keys of his nice SUV over to me and told us to pick him up in a couple of hours at 4:30! Jenny helped me navigate to a mall downtown where we parked and went shopping for cell phones. We met up with Dr. Good again and toured his apartment before he dropped us off at the over sized luxury home we were staying at.
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