...An Open Road Song: Auckland, New Zealand

Well..its finally here. Show 1 of our first world tour! its been years since we first talked about coming here. back then it was just a big pipe dream. now im sitting in a 2,286 seat theatre...where we kick off our world tour...to a sold out house!

im going to try and write here as much as possible...but no guarentees. Between the travel, time changes, exploration of cities and bar hops...i cannot guarantee a post every day...nor a complete post at that!

Last night was my last "free" night in Auckland. Its a beautiful town. looks alot like every other major downtown ive ever been in...just with alot of asians and people driving on the wrong side of the street! My day (Friday) started when my body decided it was time to get up at 4:30 in the morning! if this is the worst of my jetlag...bring it on! i did manage to get a little more sleep but was up and showered by 7am. The apartments/hotel we are staying at are amazing. they even bring you a continental breakfast to your room each night at 8pm. its just a little something. a banana, oat bar, bakery roll (like 14-grain), yogurt and a juice box. not too bad i might say. things to have a different taste here. its growing on me fast. i spent the majority of my morning enjoying the apartment to myself as julian was at the Spa all day. i was able to contact family, do some work, mix a bit of my albums and watch some funny NZ tv.

Later in the afternoon i did wander a bit downtown and get some postcards to commemorate my stay here. it was the one tourist thing i did so far. i ended up going to dinner with Cori around 7pm. we walked around downtown as she lead me to a Mediterranean restaurant that she claimed was italian. Had amazing spaghetti carbanara. and some great new zealand beer. Cori pointed out the sticker that was on the beer bottle and asked if i thought americans were offended by it. the label read "supporting the ALL BLACKS". bless her heart..she had no clue what that ment. its world cup rugby here this week. the all blacks are the auckland rugby team. dinner was amazing and afterwards we walked around the downtown a bit and saw some of the sights. Down here you HAVE to look both ways when crossing the street. Cori almost didnt make it back to the hotel...she nearly got hit by a bus. luckily i was able to grab her at the last second and pull her back. so remember kids...always look both ways!

Cori downtown. i took this so i could fit in with the 200 other people on the street corner taking the same shot. its a little out of focus...but you get the idea