I have decided to create a blog of my adventures after leaving Sydney. I figured it would much easier to write about what I have been up to rather copying and pasting the same things from one email to another. (Yes, sorry. I used to do that.)
I left Sydney on Monday afternoon and arrived in Auckland late Monday night. My good friend Alex was kind enough to pick me up from the airport...twice. He missed the 'PM' next to the time I wrote in my email. I'll make sure to make it clearer in the future. I flew with Air New Zealand, and they decided to use the Lord of the Rings movies to their advantage. If you haven't seen their safety instruction video, you can see it here. It definitely made me pay attention.
Alex took me on quick tour of Auckland on Tuesday morning, and, I must say, one morning was all that we needed. Short, but sweet. I can't get my photos uploaded, but I'll put them here once I figure it out.
We went for short tour around the Auckland War Memorial Museum. We saw a few things, most of their names have slipped my mind...sorry, Alex.
This is a view from the city looking at Mount Eden.
One of the rooms inside the museum had an exhibit about volcanoes in New Zealand. There was a room set up to look like a house that had a TV broadcast of what would happen if there were an eruption. The video of it is just below. The simulation even had the floor shaking a bit. It was pretty cool, or as they say here, it was mean as. Apparently there are lots of volcanoes in New Zealand. And for those of you who didn't know, volcanology is actually a word!
This wasn't in my brochure!
1) There aren't many street signs in Auckland. It's entirely possible to arrive at an intersection and not see the name of the street you're on nor the name of the one you're turning onto. Not surprisingly, I have gotten lost many times in just a few days. Maybe that's not so surprising for someone like me...
2) People are uncommonly kind for city people. Alex has told me that the national virtue is kindness. When I was walking to the local library to use the internet, I could hear a skateboarder coming up behind me, so I moved out of the way. As he cruised by, he took off his headphones, said "Thank you.", and smiled as he passed me. Quite a contrast with the time I was run off the road by skateboarders in Delaware. The funny thing is Aucklanders are considered to be a bit rude compared to people from other cities. For example, Alex told me of a guy from Hamilton who was astounded by the fact that someone in Auckland beeped his horn at him. Apparently car horns are just for saying hello in Hamilton.3) The sun is ridiculously intense! I haven't been burnt yet, but I was getting a bit worried when I
was out on Tuesday morning. I will be investing in a barrel of sunscreen to protect my fragile skin.
4) There are no states. The closest thing is North Island and South Island. With a population of 4 million people, New Zealand is basically a collection of villages.
5) Today I tried a flavour of ice cream called 'Hokey Pokey'. It's vanilla with chunks of honeycomb toffee. It's pretty much the national flavour.
Future Plans
I haven't set out any definite travel plans for the future, but I'm working on that. Right now I'm focusing on getting a temp job, which is looking promising. I found this video of a street luge course that's south of Auckland. I chose this video over the first one I found. That one had 'Let the bodies hit the floor' by Drowning Pool playing...not very tempting with that playing in the background.
Future Posts
Keep an eye for future posts. Hopefully they will be more interesting as more things happen along the way.
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