Auckland, New Zealand

Plane to New Zealand
As I’m sitting on the 14 hours plane ride to New Zealand, the beginning of a new lifestyle, there is an equal mix of excitement, nervousness, relief, and fear.  It’s kind of like the first day of school or the first day of a new job; you’ve showed up but you don’t know exactly how it’s going to be yet.  You don’t know anyone, you don’t know the routine, and you don’t really know what you’re going to be doing in any detailed sense.  There are too many unknowns to settle down just yet.  There’s also that recurring thought of ‘holy shit, I’m so fucking far away from anyone or anything I know’.  It’s kind of surreal and also humbling.

First people on earth to see the sunrise

Day 1 in Auckland
Auckland, New Zealand is a wild mix of places and people.  It’s almost a mix of England, Australia, and some Asian country, maybe Japan with a little dash of Los Angeles.  People drive on the wrong side of the road like England.  Peoples accents are some kind of mix between English and Australian and there are Asian influences everywhere.   There are sushi places on every corner, I ate pho for dinner tonight, and I passed at least two legit karaoke bars (the Japanese kind, not the redneck trailer trash kind that I’m used to back home).  There were artists playing on the main street; some guitar, some flute, a couple magicians.   There’s a mix of palm trees like some tropical island and big oak trees like in Mississippi.  The water is the harbor, and everywhere else for that matter is turquoise green.  There are all the fastfood places from home, though for some reason they all look like nice restaurants.   


Some guy helped me with directions, I didn't even ask. The people are very nice.


Saw some poor girl trying to decipher one of those free maps of the city.  I smiled realizing it was a wise decision to bring a smartphone with google maps. 


Some old guy, sitting in a restaurant, waved me over to play a game of chess.  I kept walking and immediately regretted it.


I saw my first ‘Occupy’ rally.  Odd that I had to fly halfway across the globe to see one of these.  Apparently the people had been camped out for over 50 days. There were tents everywhere near city hall.


Saw a boat full of people dressed up in superhero costumes, obviously enjoying a couple beers.  Magneto yelled across the water asking if there was any crime which needed to be stopped.  I laughed and said "No, not that I know of"  If i wasn't so tired I might have come up with something a bit more witty.


Some little girl was practicing piano at one empty part of the harbor.  She was surprisingly good so I stayed and listened for awhile.  Not sure how she got a piano out there.


Sat under a huge Christmas tree with 100s of other people in bean bag chairs in the harbor.  There must have been 200 just sitting around for people to use.  It was oddly comforting.
  
 Good first day in New Zealand.  

Auckland Harbor at night

Christmas Tree

Day 2 near Auckland
After a decent night of sleep I decided to be a bit more adventurous.  I booked a 30 minute ferry to a volcanic island (the entire island was a volcano) called Rangitoto.  The weather forecast called for rain, and it was spot on. It rained more or less the entire day, but a little rain never hurt anyone, so I went. Of course, I did have a top of the line rain jacket and water-proof khakis.  Yet another time I was proud of my gear.  I didn't get wet all day.

I met a girl from Germany on the trail along with a couple from France.  We explored the island together all day.  The girl from Germany was wearing jeans, and the girl from France was wearing some kind of spandex.  They got a soaking wet, but continued to laugh it off even as we were hiking around the crater at the top with the wind blowing pretty hard.  At least it wasn't really raining at the top since we were in the clouds at that point.  It was kind of like being in a cool, wet steam room.   On a good day, you're supposed to have a great view of the harbour but being in a cloud was just as cool.

On the way back, we met an American who was in town for work.  We commented that he must have a crazy job if it was taking him from California to New Zealand.  It turns out that he was a computer programmer working for some marine biology company.  We proceeded to nerd out for a bit until the ferry arrived back in Auckland.  Everyone parted ways.  It seems that friendships only last for a short time out here.  People meet up, enjoy the time spent together, and then go off to wherever they are going next.  For me thats Waitomo about 3 hours south in the country.         

Rangitoto Island from ferry