Kia ora New Zealand

After traveling for 30 hours, I finally arrived in Auckland after racing the sun to the other side of the world. We won, and got to watch the sun rise as a reward. A friend of a friend, Viv, and her son, picked me up from the airport, and before I knew it, I was off on my first adventure. Auckland is a port city surrounded by many islands in the harbor, one of which is a bird sanctuary called Tiritiri Matanagi. I arrived at Tiritiri after a relaxing ferry ride with the view of many volcanoes (none of which are still active, I think). Once arriving on the nature reserve, we all had a bio-safety talk before getting free range of the island. The people that work to preserve the land and indigenous species told us several times to check our belongings for any insects or rodents that may have hitch-hiked on our bags. We were also warned not to throw anything away on the island and to wipe our shoes of dirt before and after our time on the island.
Overall, the staff did an excellent job educating us tourists on how to preserve the beauty of their home, and people actually followed their directions. Tiritiri was mostly covered with hiking trails where you can listen to and observe the beautiful birds that call the island home. Some of my favorites were the pigeons as large as house cats with emerald green chests and the New Zealand robins that were brave enough to hope between your feet to get a good look at you. The fantails love to swoop by and flash their beautiful tails that they're named for. I saw no litter, only beautiful, serene tropical forests and sandy beaches.
It was a breath of fresh air to spend the day with myself and the birds. The island is a great place for introspection and made for a great first day. I made it to Viv's house around 7pm NZ time and immediately crashed (that 17 hour time change really knocks it out of you).