We landed in New Zealand after a 12 hour 50 minute flight, leaving SFO on Saturday night and arriving in New Zealand on Monday morning. We missed Sunday altogether!
With our Hertz car, we first drove to the beach, Muriwai Regional Park, with its black sands, surfers, and gannet birds all over the nesting rocks.
Ted quickly became at ease with driving on the left side of the road, and we bought a maps chip of NZ/AU for the Garmin GPS we brought along so navigation has been pretty easy.
We are staying at an AirB&B, about 30 minutes directly west from central Auckland, on the shore of Waimanu Bay, right up against the water! Lovely! 
It’s been a nice first day, but the red-eye flight has us yawning. It’s 3:30 PM on Monday as I write this, and that translates to 6:30 PM on Sunday back home. So, my California friends, subtract 3 hours and add a day. That’s where we are in the world!
The water is so blue!