Auckland: no sheep yet

First week in New Zealand and I'm already leaving Auckland today. Time flies when you don't have any responsibilities!

Me and alien tree at Albert Park

I spose I should backtrack and relay how the flight went. Gather around, children.

The 2 hour transfer flight to LA was surprisingly stress-free, and it wasn't only until I had to board the flight for Auckland that things got a little hairy.
Before I left, I didn't book a flight to Australia since that's all the way in April 2012. When I got to the boarding gate in LA, they told me I couldn't get on the plane without a flight out. There were only 25 minutes left and they were spent with 1 attendant calling another office to book a last minute flight, while another was trying to get my bag off the plane (ie. to spend the night in LA - ugh). Part of me was curious to see how this dramatic scene in my life movie would play out, while the other part of me really didn't want to leave the airport and find a place to sleep in LA. In the nick of time, they got a hold of somebody on the phone and got my credit card number patched through.
The climax of the movie: a figure books it down the hallway towards us, the heavily panting attendant slaps a receipt on the counter for me to sign, they shove me on the plane where everyone is seated and waiting, and I make it on.
An extremely short 14 hours later, we land in Auckland 11am local time. Victory.

Now, let's just say that I didn't come to New Zealand for Auckland - it's a city not too different from home.

This isn't the real entrance to my hostel but it's the same address and the first door you see. I still haven't gone through it.

Here are some observations:

Sights: Even though I was going on no sleep, the first day I pushed myself to walk around just to get a feel of the place. Turns out that you can see all of central Auckland in 2 hours, from K Road where my hostel was (with strippers and adult shops) to the wharf.

Food: Asian restaurants (especially Japanese) are as commonplace as Starbucks. A lot of sushi places have the food laid out for people to take buffet-style, only I got sketched out because none of it was refrigerated.

People: TONS of international students and immigrants. I heard as much Chinese as I did English. The Asians spoke either fluent Chinese/Japanese/Korean, or English with Kiwi accents.

Roads: I wasn't weirded out by cars driving on the other side of the road, although I still haven't gotten used to looking the right direction when jaywalking (dangerous). It took me a long time to realize that at some intersections when the walking sign comes on, everybody can walk and all the cars have to wait. There are lines marked for people to walk diagonally across. I did it a couple times even though I didn't need to be on the other side of the street :)

Prices: more than Canada. Especially books. 45 NZ$ for Ishmael, come on! Taxes included and tipping not expected! (you order and pay up at the counter for most places, anyway)

Nature: Ample grass napping space yay! Lots of different kinds of beautiful trees (see alien tree picture).


Actually, Auckland City is a nice place to be. I eventually realized that the downtown core is like Vancouver's, in that the local people hang out in the outer neighborhoods. The downtown is reserved for business buildings, international students and tourists.

There were definitely some highlights to my few days here. The second day, I spent a few hours at the awesome Auckland Art Gallery and Albert Park, which are basically attached to each other. That night I met up with Ciaran, a British dude who was my plane buddy. We hit up a French restaurant and each had a fancy crepe flambe style.

Mirrored infinity inside the gallery.

Yesterday was the best day in the Auckland experience, mostly because I stayed outside the downtown core the whole day. In the morning I checked out Ponsonby, which is a suburb that reminded me of a cross between Main st. at home and Portland - full of trendy shops that I couldn't afford, cute cafes that I'd actually eat in, and lots of cool restaurants. The only missing thing were the North American hipsters.
After that, I met up with Ciaran again and we headed to Devonport, which is just a 10 minute ferry ride to the North Shore. It was basically like going to Deep Cove. VERY quaint, not too 'twee' at all (a Britishism you'll just have to look up). It was a bluebird day too - apparently the sun gods approved of our daytrip.

 

 
Best legend ever. Actually, there were at least 5 notable trees up on that hill.

We had dinner at an Italian place before we left Devonport. I've discovered that I'm a terrible budget backpacker when it comes to food. After, we headed back to Ponsonby for 'Art in the Dark', which was a sweet exhibition of light installations at a park. Our favorite one hands down was a projector facing 2 wavy slides that projected a loop of neon kids sliding and climbing up and down the slides. And people were welcome to slide down too, so they often 'collided'. Then to make it even better they had loads of cartoon images around it and fun music. It had the spirit of the Magic School Bus!

  

Anyway, it's time to say bye for now to Auckland and head to the first farm. This was a rather long post but I won't be updating for a while because I'll be in the middle of nowhere.

 
Smoked fish hash at Alleluya Cafe

Right now I'm eating a fish hash in this cool cafe that has its tables out in the courtyard. Thriller's just come on their speakers. Life is good.