Finally Here
Trip Start
Jan 12, 2008
1
15
Trip End
May 10, 2008
Auckland,
New Zealand
Thursday, January 17, 2008
When I finally arrived at my hostel, (looking amazing by the way, and smelling great too), I checked into my 6 person room waking up 5 argentinian travelers all about the same age as me. Too bad they couldn't understand my apologies, all but one spoke only Spanish. (Damnit for not paying more attention in my 10th grade Spanish class).
Day 1: I spent most of the day wandering around the city. Auckland is 1.3 million people, large, but not considering a third of the people in New Zealand live here in the city
Boeing 747 I took from LA to Fiji
. The country is about the size of California so you can about imagine how much space there is. My hostel was located in central Auckland right off Queensstreet--a busy buzzing eclectic street with tons of shops and eateries and businesses. I had a light sushi lunch. Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Thai food--all this is extremely popular because half the people you see are asians. I was told they move here to get away from the business of their cultures. Grabbed a burger at a pub that night and ended up playing pool with a couple of gents from Birmingham England and some from Ireland and such. Played trivia--sad to say the Europeans knew way more of the American questions than I did. I've had no problem making friends or meeting people. Everyone is super friendly and lovely to be around. Oh, and the weather: HOT--the sun here is much different than anywhere else in the world. Unfortunately there is a hole in the ozone layer right above NZ so the skin cancer rates are high. It's weird, the air is not so much hot, but you can actually just feel the rays beating down on you. Glad I brought my sunscreen :)Day 2: I had a 3 hour orientation through the work program I went through. Was introduced to the culture, set up a bank account, bought a cell phone, signed up for a tax IRD number. Call me a kiwi! This took up much of the day. Oh yeah, napped in the park for a bit since I was checked out of my hostel
Auckland City Central
. (Shush to all of you hippie haters)... Before I came over, through a friend of a friend of a friend (literally) I made friends online with a young married couple who offered to let me stay with them when I arrived in Auckland. They picked me up after their work day and so here I am...
Day 3: ...at their house. Cute and quaint. Liz and Craig are their names. Liz has flowers planted everywhere. In their backyard are 3 averys with "Budgees" or, as we call them, parakeets I think. There must be about 30 of them, all differents colors--so neat! Back to Liz and Craig: they are GREAT! Both so easy going with sarcastic senses of humor. I feel very comfortable here. Helped Craig with the lawn a bit this morning and then we went for a jog around the neighborhood and beach. We are waiting for Zach to fly in. Zach is a college friend I met back in the spring who's coming over to play rugby and work. We will both be heading down to the south island sometime, maybe within the next week. Until then, just chilling here, checking out the sites of Auckland. Tomorrow we're all going to "The Big Day Out" a huge music festival. Bjork and Rage against the Machine are headlining--should be SWEET AS. Saturday Craig and Liz have friends and fam coming. I think a Barbeque and games of rugby and cricket down by the beach are in order.
