Where in the world is Brandon OBrien

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Settling into Wellington - New Zealand 2019

Sunday, November 24, 2019 @ 10:00 PM in 2019 New Zealand

Day 1

We landed in Auckland around 9:40am local time, then had about two hours to kill before our 11:30 departure for Wellington. Anne got us into the Air New Zealand lounge where we had some snacks and a beer. The lounge was really nice and it felt great to be out of the plane seat. Our flight to Wellington arrived around 12:35pm, which gave us most of the day to get settled in and explore a little bit.

The first thing we did was get the rental car and check into our Airbnb to drop off our bags. The place had a theme of a 50's diner, complete with ice cream and malt to make some milkshakes. After we got settled in, we got in the car and headed down into Wellington proper. First we stopped at a place called Choice Bros to get a beer and snack. I was eager to try as many New Zealand style pilsners as I could, so I had my first one here. New Zealand pilsners are pilsners that are heavily hopped with all the fruity and tropical hops that New Zealand is known for.

After we finished at Choice Bros, we went down to the waterfront and stopped at a place called St. Johns Bar where they had some outdoor seating over looking the harbor. We got a drink there and hung out for a little while, even though it was overcast and cold. Fortunately this was almost the only day during the entire trip that we didn't have really nice weather (which is really odd for New Zealand).

We started to get hungry so we set out to find a real dinner. We tried to get into one restaurant but it was going to be a pretty long wait. Across the street from that restaurant was Mt. Vic Chippery, a pretty typical fish n chips joint. We decided to check it out and were treated with some really delicious fish and chips. After dinner we were all feeling pretty beat from the long travel day, so we went back to the Airbnb and called it a night.

Teaser photos:

Hanging out at St. John's Bar and Restaurant

Harbor in Wellington

Fish n Chips at Mt Vic Chippery

Mickey greeting us at the Airbnb

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Tags: new zealand, honeymoon, wellington

Posted from: New Zealand

A Day in L.A. Before New Zealand

Friday, November 22, 2019 @ 11:50 PM in 2019 New Zealand

Since Sam and I booked a separate flight to LA from the one leaving LA to New Zealand, we wanted to make sure we landed in LA with plenty of time in case of any delays or issues. Our flight landed first thing in the morning (6:20am) in LA, so after getting out of the airport we set off toward Manhattan beach where we ate a huge breakfast at Uncle Bill's Pancake House. After that, we set out to walk along the beachfront for most of the morning. Unfortunately it we weren't able to drop our bags off at the airport so we had to carry our luggage with us while on the beach.

We made it all the way down to the Redondo Beach Pier where we had a snack at the Shrimp Lover before starting our walk back north. We aimlessly walked around until Mike and Anne were done with working and met up with them at the Hermosa Creek Brewing company for some beer before dinner. For dinner, we ate at Palmilla Cocina y Tequila where we had some nice Mexican food.

Our flight didn't leave until almost midnight, but we figured we'd go ahead and hang out at the airport since we had no where else to be. We finally boarded our flight and got settled in for the long haul direct into Auckland!

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