Auckland, Day....Something. Yeah!
Hey guys! Ok, so a lot of stuff has happened over the last couple of days. I haven’t really had time to sit down and write it all down until now, so let’s see how much I can remember.
At this point, I think I’ve seen pretty much every part of Auckland by foot. I’ve hit City Centre, the Wharf, Victoria Park, Auckland University, Parnell, Newton, Mt.Eden, Auckland Domain, and bits and pieces of the North Shore. I think the only place I haven’t been to yet is Posonby, which is apparently a really funky area with an extensive nightlife. I don’t really have a favorite place yet, but if I had to pick someplace I’d love to visit again, I guess I would go with Auckland Domain just because it’s so beautiful and because you can literally walk through it for days and not see it all.
Pictures from the Front of Albert Park, Near the University
Ryan and I have become fast friends. It’s cool because we both believe that the best way to explore is by walking, so we just pick a place each day and try to see a little bit more of the city each time. We’ve stumbled on some real gems that way - probably a lot more than we would have it we had been in a bus. Then we might part ways for a bit to get some business done or meet up for drinks later. It’s kind of fallen into a routine in that way.
The Ferry Building by the Wharf and A Shot of the City From the North Shore
I feel a little more comfortable now that I have a lot of major roadblocks cleared out of the way. I applied for an IRD number the second day that I was here, and it usually takes about 7-10 days for that to get cleared, so that might be ready next week. Basically, you can’t legally work in New Zealand until you have an IRD number. It’s for tax purposes. You can apply and tell them that you plan on getting one soon, but you definitely have to have it going first.
The people at Westpac were especially helpful in getting me a nice NZ bank account. I did my research before leaving and figured out that Westpac (an Australian-based bank located in NZ) is affiliated with Bank of America through a Global Alliance, so I’m able to use my U.S. ATM card in a Westpac ATM for free - no overseas charges or conversion fees. I made an appointment with a woman there right away and got some straight answers on how it works. It’s very easy to close after my visa ends, and I just need to transfer from savings to checking before withdrawing if I want to access that account. They gave me my debit card right there without any hassle and…voila! The IEP program recommends KiwiBank because it’s the only NZ bank that’s completely owned by New Zealanders, but I think I got a better deal through Westpac. Ryan and a few other backpackers got that one and had to wait as much as two days to get any cards or information. It’s also run out of the post office, so you always have to wait in long lines to access your account.
I’m still staying in the same hostel on Queen St - ACB, the Base Auckland. It’s pretty nice, actually. The German girls have been amazing roommates - very polite and respectful. They sleep an awful lot, though. I think each culture is different because Americans count 6-8 hours a good night’s sleep, but these girls go to bed at 10pm and sleep until 7 or 8am. I don’t really mind so much because it forces me to go to bed earlier than I normally would, but it’s hard when you wake up naturally a few hours before they do and don’t want to wake them up. Last night was Friday night and a major party time for the bar downstairs, so it was pretty loud until about 3am, but that’s really been the only crazy night so far. It’s usually pretty quiet even though we face the alley on the second floor. I’m paid up to Sunday night, and then I have to decide if I want to stay longer than that. There was a “pay three nights, get the fourth free” special going on, so I decided to take advantage of it. I’m torn between staying in the area a little longer and trying to find work nearby and trying to apply for work somewhere further away. A lot of work is available in Blenheim, just at the northern tip of the South Island, right now, but it’s kind of far away and hard work. They need a lot of pruning done to get ready for the picking season, I guess. I would rather try my luck with office or work-for-accommodation gigs, but they pay really good money if you’re willing to put in the long hours for a few weeks. Several of the friends I’ve made at the hostel are hitching rides on buses or planes down there soon, so I might be persuaded to follow them if I can’t find anything else. There are a lot of positions available in hostels where you work for a few hours cleaning and get a free room, but they don’t pay you at all. That might work for a little while, but it would still be a gradual decline in funds at best. It might be nice to do something crazy at first and get some good money right away so that I don’t have to worry as much afterwards, but I’m still undecided. Ryan has a lot less of a nest egg to work with, so he’s going down there ASAP. He’s trying to convince me to come, too, so we’ll see.
Let’s see, I already kind of mentioned Victoria Park and some of the area around Queen Street, so I’ll mention the University a bit. I went down there maybe the second or third day and was able to score a lot of free pamphlets and maps from the student commons. As long as I don’t wear my giant Osprey pack and don’t open my mouth, I can pass almost perfectly for a New Zealand college student, so I was able to walk right through the Quad at the busiest time of day without any trouble at all. There’s some crazy election thing going on there, by the way. I’ve never really gone to a “spirited” school where we care about who’s on the Student Council or whatever, so it was a bit of a shock to see so much advertising for it on campus. It was on every available wall space and being shouted by everyone in the courtyard, complete with people dressed up in costume to market their candidates. It was kind of insane.
Cool Clock Tower and Statue of Queen Victoria Near Campus
Auckland Domain, as I mentioned, is pretty cool. I went there briefly by myself, but it was kind of rainy and I didn’t go very far. It’s very steep in the beginning, so I was discouraged after a long day of walking already. I went back there the other night with Ryan since he hadn’t seen that area before. We went way out there and got a little bit lost, but it was totally worth it. Unfortunately, most of the pictures didn’t turn out that well because it got very dark, but it was like being the middle of the Amazon - really tropical and jungle-like in some places. We found so many secret waterfalls and palm groves hidden behind this cute little duck pond, and we got drenched to the bone in some places after a monsoon rolled in unexpectedly. We ended up wandering around for several hours in there because there are so many side paths that cross over wooden bridges and deep canyons. There was this one creepy guy, though. Towards the end of one particularly dark path, we saw this guy in a black cloak just…standing there in our way. Think Headless Horseman mixed with Darth Vader or something. We kind of exchanged looks and went the other way without any debate. Looking back, it was probably some sweet old man wearing his hood up from the rain, but...you know, creepy.
Auckland Domain and the Auckland Museum
Parnell and Newton are pretty much shopping areas filled with restaurants and cute little shops. We briefly went through there on the way to Mt.Eden. That’s we ended up doing today spontaneously. Last night, like I said before, was a crazy night for drinking. They offered free drinks down at The Globe for as long as the $1,000 tab lasted (which was all of 15 minutes…seriously), so that meant the whole hostel showed up. I stopped down for “one drink” at 8pm and ended up staying until 10 or so after getting sucked into conversation with an Irish guy and a guy from Chicago. It was definitely more of a club atmosphere than the bar scene, and it got super loud after a while. My voice is still a little hoarse from the shouting. On the plus side, the Irish guy introduced me to a new drink - Woodstocks, Bourbon and Cola. It’s actually pretty good. An Irish girl with him mentioned that there’s a drink in Argentina called “the Submarine,” where they give you a glass of warm milk and a piece of chocolate in the shape of a submarine, and you submerge the chocolate to make hot cocoa. Sounds awesome.
Area Around Newmarket Heading Into Mt. Eden
But back to today. I didn’t stay very long, but Ryan apparently went out to a few other places, too, and was just a bit…tired today. So he wasn’t moving very fast this morning, but I was able to get a few CVs out there for job applications. Then we ran into each other later and decided to find One Tree Hill in a spur-of-the-moment kind of idea. By the way, One Tree Hill: horrible American TV show, really pretty New Zealand look out. It used to be a volcano, like pretty much every other hill or mountain here, and it’s actually higher in altitude than the Sky Tower at the top, so that’s a big savings of money to see a great view. He had been there once before with this family he has distant connections with, but I hadn’t been out there at all. We looked at a map online before leaving and got a general mental route going, but we pretty much went blind. Considering the lack of preparation, we didn’t do too badly, but it was a very long walk. I stopped for directions in a train station, and the local guy there kind of looked at me in disbelief when I mentioned where I was going. Apparently native Aucklanders think any place further than half an hour’s walk is insane. We had already been walking about that long when we asked in Newton, so we didn’t have much further to walk after that. The problem was that Mt. Eden is freakishly steep…like a HUGE work out.
Heading Up the Path
We went around the back through this gorgeous residential area and climbed very carefully up this dirt path. At the very top is a very deep crater that’s sacred to Maori people and a great vantage point of the city. We saw the ocean, downtown, and all sorts of surrounding areas. It was incredibly beautiful, and I’m really glad that we went through all of the trouble to get up there. It wasn’t until we were already up there, though, that we realized that One Tree Hill is actually even further than Mt. Eden and not on the same mountain at all. We could see it in the distance, but we were so tired after the long hike that we decided to call it good on that count. Ryan says that there are a lot of sheep there and that the actually tree is no longer there. Apparently it was cut down in a protest years ago and hasn’t been replaced. Oh well. Maybe next time.
Some View From the Top of Mt. Eden
The way back was pretty uneventful. We ran into a Canadian guy playing with his kids and accidentally stumbled onto a REALLY old cemetery that included the first Governor of New Zealand and founder of Auckland from 1848. Kind of cool and creepy all the same.
Creepiness
Other than that, it’s been just business and hanging out. I went on a free day-trip bus tour around Auckland yesterday, but the weather was so bad that we could barely see anything. I had actually hit up a lot of it already just by wandering around on my own. The only part that was new and relatively dry on Friday was the Memorial to NZ’s first prime minister. I guess he was a really great guy who did a lot of things for the Maori people and was originally a coal/gold miner from Australia. He died of cancer after being reelected, so there’s this great monument erected in his memory. I took a few shots before the weather turned.
Memorial and the Maori Village Nearby. The Maori There Had to Relocate After Elizabeth II Visited and They Destroyed Their Old Village. They Protested and Won When They Were Asked to Move Again.
I’ll probably think of something else that I forgot to mention later, but that’s all I can remember for now. Tomorrow is a rugby game in Eden Park through the hostel, so that should be fun. I'm hoping to add pictures to this post and the first post later today, so keep checking back!