A soft landing
Trip Start
Nov 01, 2004
1
33
51
Trip End
??? ??, 2006
Auckland,
New Zealand
Monday, August 15, 2005
When we arrived at the airport, once customs and immigration had given me the third degree, we were picked up by Gareth and Michelle, friends from home who have been living in Auckland for the past eight months. Before we knew it we were fed, watered (or should I say wined) and tucked into a lovely bed in their guest room. Legends!
I had been dreading New Zealand weather but so far it's not too bad. The days are mild and sunny. In fact there hasn't been a cloud in the sky for the last couple of days. It's been sunny enough for Brian to persist in his flip-flop wearing. I've a funny feeling the South Island weather will require socks - hopefully with shoes not flip flops.
The night after we arrived there was a big party in Michelle and Gareth's house with all their housemates, football team-mates and random pub mates. Everyone I was talking to got so excited telling me about their favorite places in New Zealand. I've now got a huge list of "must see" places. Lots of people seem to stay in New Zealand for good. Some of them even had kids at the party. One cute four year old called Siobhan was a bit smitten with Brian and serenaded him with a lovely version of "Blackbird". Unfortunately it had more of a lullaby effect and he was asleep by the end of the song. The party didn't end until 7am. If this is the norm over here I'll have to start some sort of training regime.
The next day was my 25 birthday (other memorable foreign birthdays include France - 3, Nice - 19, Munich - 20, Vietnam - 22).
Auckland Butterfly on Peary Road
I woke up in bed with not one but two sexy guys. Not bad, eh? I'm not sure who gets more enjoyment out of all the scheming that seems to go into my birthdays. This year was one of the best with surprise messages, cake, champagne, loads of presents and cards and 7.30am phone calls (remember the party only ended at 7am). Some of the details of our rough plan (buy a car and go somewhere rural to work) have sorted themselves out. We're buying Gar and Michelle's car (a monster 3 litre Nissan Maxima). All other details have yet to reveal themselves.
When not buying a car, opening bank accounts, sorting out tax numbers, buying insurance, etc, we managed to fit in a few touristy activities. Auckland is a lovely city - loads of pretty beaches, hilly extinct volcanoes, islands, loads of Chinese shops and a lot of rugby jerseys for sale. The Skytower (tallest tower in the southern hemisphere - possible the only one too for all I know) is an ugly enough contraption (think grey gigantic syringe)during the day but the view from the top is great and the tower is lit up like a spaceship at night time.
Even better than the Skytower are the volcanoes. We climbed up three of them in three days - Mount Eden, Mount Victoria and Three Kings. The views from all of them are spectacular. And after huffing and puffing your way to the top you feel like you've earned them. Devonport, the village surrounding Mount Victoria, was quaint enough to make us almost stay in Auckland for longer.
However I will feel much safer outside of Auckland. The drivers here are maniacs. When we told the car insurance people we wouldn't be living in Auckland they halved the insurance premium. People can drive over here when they're 15 which seems to be a very bad idea. There's loads of boy racers and personalised name plates are very popular.
There's a lot of fat people over here. Several New Zealand MPs have had stomach stapling operations (one cheeky MP used a charity's budget to fund her operation and then told the public her weight loss was thanks to exercise and a good diet!). In the supermarket there's bottles of Double Chocolate Stout on sale and the local fish and chip shops sell battered Mars bars. We could be in trouble!
