First day in New York

We have just finished a very busy first day of sight-seeing in New York, and have the blisters to show for it! We arrived in New York after a fairly smooth run through Los Angeles airport and then JFK airport in New York. This included leaving Auckland at 7.30pm Tues night for an 11 hour flight to LA, then a 4 hour wait before a 5 hour flight to New York which arrived at 12.30am Wednesday morning! US customs asked us a few tricky questions but we must have answered them satisfactorily because they let us through. The hardest part of the trip here was probably having to finish it by carrying all four of our heavy items of luggage up five flights of stairs to my brother’s apartment! But the air-bed at the end of it made it all worth-while, somehow trying to sleep on the plane doesn’t quite compare.

So this morning we headed off to get on a bus tour around up-town New York, having to navigate the subway system first to catch a subway to Times Square. This wasn’t too much of a problem, our biggest hurdle is people not understanding our accent – most people ask us to repeat what we say! So we hopped on the double-decker tour bus near Times Square, and then drove up the west side of Central Park, seeing lots of interesting buildings on the way. The bus drove through Harlem, and we got off there to walk around, and look through a market with mainly African gift-ware.

Then we got back on the bus and headed down 5th Avenue towards Central Park, where we got off to explore, and manage to get lost! Central Park is rather confusing we found, with many branching and curving walkways. But we managed to get out, and get back on the bus to head to FAO Schwarz, where we marveled at giant toys, the piano you play with your feet, and an extensive Lego collection. We looked at some of the other shops around the area, including Bloomingdales, then headed back to Steve’s apartment to rest our feet. New York has amazed us with it’s amazing architecture, contrast between quiet leafy avenues and bustling neon-lit streets and efficient transport system! And we have only seen the tip of the iceberg…..