Tranny Hookers and Scaling Mount Victoria

So the past few days have been a little bit slower paced, but fun nonetheless. 2 days ago we explored Karanghape Road which is a fifteen minute walk from the flats that I’m staying at. This was the first time that a few of us had ventured away from downtown/queen street. What we discovered was a little bit grungy, a little rough around the edges, and completely enthralling. Karanghape is known for its more diverse crowds, filled with locals, away from the hustle and bustle of the more commercialized downtown.

We browsed some of the shops during the day. K’ Road is known for its vintage and antique clothing shops, as well as small art stores with locally blown glass, wood carvings, and some cool Maori art.

Murals along K' Road; "No Nuclear Fire for Amber"

We came back to K’ Road that night to check out some of the bars down the winding street. On the way back from the bar, walking down a few seedy side-streets, Alyssa was quick to point out which hookers were not actually women.

Speaking of culture shocks, when we go out to restaurants, I have stopped ordering anything that has an American connotation to it. Things that I love in America somehow seem botched here, including hamburgers and ketchup. Here they call ketchup “tomato sauce” and it tastes much sweeter than ketchup in the states.
I think knowing that I won’t be able to try the things I’m used to has forced me to go outside of the box a lot when it comes to eating; there are a ton of Korean and Japanese influences in Auckland and its cuisine.

So this weekend we had plans to go to Coromandel in the northland region above Auckland. However, after hearing that there were going to be cyclones this weekend, 100mm of rain an hour, and that they would be the worst storms Auckland has seen in five years, we decided to stay a little closer to the city.

We all agreed to check out Devonport, which is just a 10 dollar, fifteen minute ride across the bay to this small town with historical architecture, a main street downtown with cool cafes and restaurants, and a huge mound, Mt. Victoria, where the views were amazing. I got the feeling that Devonport is where some of the businessmen live when they aren’t working nine to five in the CBD.

After scaling Mount Victoria, and appreciating the 360 degree view of water around us, we found ourselves on the main street and ate at a small and dimly lit Greek restaurant called Nicolino’s, which was really good.

On the way to the ferry; Queen Street, CBD. Crossing the street diagonally. Awesome.

Halfway up Mt. Victoria

Ragitoto across the water
Vents above the Bunker; very Mario brothersWalking towards town

A Waiheke Island Daycation

Today I tried something different and hung out with a few different people from the australearn group. This proved tedious at times, and hilarious at others and overall I enjoyed myself.
We started the day by getting a few people’s classes figured out. I’d already done this, so all I did was go on the computer and talk to a few friends. I also got my phone today for really cheap, about 60USD, its very simple but gets the job done. Its a pay-as-you-go phone which most all new zealanders use, and most of the time people only text because its so expensive to call.

Its hard traveling with a big group of people (10plus) like we did today, because everyone has different ideas about what they want to do, and anywhere you go, you start a line regardless of whether there was one before you got there.

So after everyone got squared away, we took the free bus down to the water and ferry station.


Auckland is so funny because on the way to the station, people were complaining about how it was raining out, and it was getting a little bit cold, but by the time we got to the island, it was hot and we almost all ended up with sunburns.

But anyways, the ferry to Waiheke Island takes 45 minutes and only costs $25 bucks (12 USD). We met a girl named Hazel on the boat that was backpacking around for her winter term away from Dartmouth and invited her to explore the island with us.

On the ferry, passing Ragitoto Island, a volcanic island in Auckland's bay
A trip for next weekend?

The beach where we spent most of our day

People go to school here

As you can see, we didn’t make it far. We just explored this little crescent shaped cove the whole day, climbing a rocky hill to get to another equally beautiful beach. We ended the day by splitting bottles of wine made on the island and eating fish and chips on the beach. We had to get our food before the place closed at seven thirty so employees could catch the local bus back to the ferry. Our server was nice about it, but the island time is a funny concept to grasp; nothing was open past 7:30, so we were stuck watching the sunset practically alone on this beach. Great.

Waiting for the ferry to take us back to Auckland

Leaving smelly Rotorua; first day in Auckland.

So the next day started with us going to a sheep sheering show. This was completely interesting and totally tourist-y. I couldn’t believe how many people showed up to this. Literally, they put 20 different breeds of sheep on a stage, shaved one in less than one minute, and then we watched a dog herd them into pens. Weird.

Later, we all performed a traditional hukka. Which is a type of Maori dance depicting something through words and hand movements. It was about some chief who was being chased by 100 men from Wellington to Taupo. The chief pleaded with a different chief and his wife to save him. As the army was approaching the chief got into a pit that was meant to store food. The other chief’s wife stood over the pit. When the army got to the man, they couldn’t kill him, because it was forbidden to ‘go through a woman’s legs’. It was an interesting story to say the least, but

So then we all had a choice between lugeing and zorbing. Zorbing is basically getting into a giant hampster ball and rolling down a hill. It was a little more expensive, and the ride lasted about a minute. Alyssa, Max, and I chose lugeing. This was awesome because we got a tram ride to the top of this mountain in rotorua, the view of the surrounding lake was amazing but sadly I forgot my camera. Luging is basically sitting in a plastic kind of go-cart, when you pull back you break, and when you don’t do anything, you let gravity do its thing. We got to go down three courses and it was so much fun, people were wiping out off the course everywhere.

Later we went to a maori dinner, where they performed some of their dances and gave all of us a meal. It was again interesting, but at times I couldn’t help but feel we were being sold their culture.

So the next day we had to all wake up, go to one last information session, and then we dropped all the waikaito university students off in Hamilton. Hamilton is a small town an hour south of Auckland. This was a little bittersweet because then we headed back into Auckland.

This is where it started to feel real, and I still kind of have a knot in my throat, thinking that I am here, so far away from home. Hopefully my nerves will ease up a little bit after the next week of orientation. There is just so much to do, internet, phone, sign up for classes, find the dairy, open a bank account.

We wandered around a bit, I found a pillow and some sheets, we ate at a kabob place. The city is so easy to navigate, but I haven’t been to the outer parts (parnell, newmarket, and ponsonby) yet.

Today I had an orientation presentation. All 4,000 of us were there, representing over 20 countries.
Afterwards, a few of us got our schedules sorted out, and Alyssa and I turned in our applications for the HANZ 18plus cards so that we can have proof to drink. Otherwise, we just meandered throughout the city.

Here are some pictures from my first full day in Auckland:

The view from my bedroom

Me; Flying with the gulls in Aotea Square


The Sky Tower


Hilarious product placement

On the walking bridge over Queen Street

The Waitomo Glowworm Caves plus liquor laws.

So today, after waking up at seven, we took a two-hour drive to the waitomo caves. The scenery around the caves was amazing, and our two tour guides had a lot to say about the small town of waitomo. Our small van wound through a gravel path going right alongside these ravines and as we passed a dilapidated house one of the guides goes ‘See there mate, that house has been lived in by a family for four generations, they have no electricity or running water, but it is a well known fact that if you’re looking for any weed in waitomo, this is where you look. Anything that gets lost in waitomo will find its way to that house three days later.”

We saw the glowworms, tubed down the underground river, squeezed through tight crevices and avoided the eels, (we still aren’t sure whether or not there are eels in the waitomo caves, that’s the thing about New Zealanders, you can never tell when they are serious, and they like to make fun of each other/trick each other about everything).

After caving, we took the two-hour ride back to rotorua. As soon as we got back we had dinner and just hung out. A bunch of people wanted to go out to the Lava bar, but it was apparently uncool to go at eight thirty. Max, Alyssa and I decided to get some liquor downtown and bring it back to the hostel. We were totally lost in Rotorua and had no idea where the liquor store was, so I decided we should stop at the police station, to ask.

The cop we talked to was really nice, and suggested the pak-n-save just down the road, we also asked about open container laws, because we were told there were none, and apparently there are, so I guess it was a really smart decision to stop at police station. She realized that we were ‘not from around here’, I feel like everyone automatically knows, like a freshmen walking around his first day of school. She was encouraging and kept using “sweet as” which was really funny, because its probably the equivalent of a cop in the U.S. saying ‘cool’. “Sweet as” is used by most New Zealanders, and its funny because they never actually say what is so sweet.

EX: “Oh brah I took a nap the other day, it was sweet as”, “You want to get the next shout(round of beers)? Sweet as”

So we wound our way around Rotorua, going in circles, and finally got back to the hostel. We ran into Joe, who goes to the university of Auckland, and he pointed out the only difference between the southern hemisphere and northern hemisphere’s stars, The Southern Cross. Pretty cool.

Later we went to the Lava Bar, this was interesting to say the least. It seems that New Zealanders are very open minded and super liberal, until it comes to dancing. I felt like I was at a middle school dance, everyone was a few feet apart from each other, except for the australearn kids. It was funny how nervous kiwis looked when they saw us dancing.

Anyways, tomorrow is all about culture, doing a traditional maori hukka, and then off to a maori village for a traditional meal. Ohh and I went lugeing!

I make friends with the people who don't have any.

First let me apologize, these updates are late because I had no internet access up until now.

Here goes:

My first update since getting to New Zealand, it’s been a day here, and I feel like I’ve been here for weeks.
The ride to L.A. was more treacherous than the one to Auckland, despite getting a few good photos of the Rockies.

Air New Zealand was beyond accommodating. By the time we took off I was prepared to endure an even worse flight than the one to L.A. Almost immediately after takeoff we were offered a choice of two hot meals, and all the chardonnay we could drink. We each had our own t.v. and headset, and to my surprise, they already had some of my favorite bands under the music section. As morning hit they woke us all up and served us a hot breakfast. This was beginning to look like a good start to the trip.

We arrived in Auckland at 5 30 AM and after getting too little rest, I was nonetheless excited to get off the plane. Through customs we were sniffed by various dogs after picking up our luggage, went through two x-rays, and proceeded outside.
After depositing our main luggage onto a moving bus and taking only our essentials for the four-day orientation,(it was smart to pack my duffle with a few pairs of clothes) all the university of Auckland and Waikato students boarded our large coach line. Our australearn rep. has been so cool; his name is Foster and hes from the states and recently moved to nz with his wife, Alicia, who was my coordinator. This is where the ride got interesting. It was announced to us that we had a three-hour drive to Rotorua with multiple stops along the way. All of the weary travelers took this news with excited cheers, despite the feeling that we would all be passed out during the boring commentary. Luckily our bus driver was an interesting guy. He drives tour busses in nz for three months out of the year and knows heaps about everything, he also teaches environmental science to kids in Switzerland the rest of the year.

We stopped at this sandwich shop outside of Auckland for a second breakfast called Pokono's. Anyways, their whole claim to fame is that they have the best bacon sandwiches in all of New Zealand. My bacon (Canadian bacon) and egg sandwich was pretty good. This was also an interesting stop because we got to introduce ourselves to one another and get to know each other a little better. Come to find out there is a couple from Eckerd (in St. Petersburg, fl), along with their friend, going to the university of Auckland. I got a comforting feeling when I went to the cash register with nz money in my hand. (Thanks Dad, that WAS good advice). Almost everyone else had either changed currency at the airport (at a rate of 1.60, significantly worse than my 1.90) or had forgotten to get nz money at all. Thus forcing them to use their debit cars that I am sure will incur an exorbitant amount of unnecessary fees. I laughed a little inside.

We then drove through the country, further away from Auckland, and down south towards rotorua. Lake Taupo is apparently the biggest lake in NZ, and feeds the longest river, the Wakatamo river. Along with this we learned that the ca pital was moved from Auckland to Wellington during the goldrush, to ‘manage’ the growing population there.
Along with these interesting facts, we drove through the countryside, and were introduced to some of NZ’s major exports, sheep and dairy. The countrysid e was amazing, these small houses in vast green fields all backset by huge ‘mountains’ which a guy I met from Colorado calls hills.



We stopped at a small town called Tirau for a bathroom break. Most of the towns buildings are completely made of tin siding, as they are the only place road signs ar e made in New Zealand.
This was a particularly interesting building:

Further on, showerless, traveling for over twenty-four hours, and actually falling asleep, with a one hour ride to rotorua, we just watched on as the countryside passed. This country is greener than anything I’ve ever seen, and foster informed us there is an obvious reason its green. It rains. A lot. Luckily today was really nice outside, even if it was humid.

On the outskirts of Rotorua there is a huge lake surrounded by large hills. Rotorua is one of the geothermal hotspots in nz and there are spas and mudpool everywhere. Before arriving at kiwi paka, our hostel, we were warned about the owner of the hostel (I forget his name), and how he could be a bit ‘cheeky’ and that’s just how he got to know you. Needless to say, he didn’t get to know any of us because we all avoided him.
The room that I’m staying in has two beds downstairs, and two upstairs, and then its own bathroom, its really pretty nice. The hostel has a full bar, and a geothermal hot pool in the center where I’m sure we’ll all be tonight.

We all went to a lecture hall and had a one hour introduction lecture, all of the schools were there, otago, wakaito, uni Auckland, and I think one other. So it was interesting, there must be about 100 of us, and its tough to get to know people, mainly because when you start talking to people, you realize they will be on the south island, or an hour away, which is a bit discouraging, but will make things interesting when spring break comes around and we’re all wanting to see other parts of nz.

We learned about the treaty of wagaitangi, and how that is a huge contention between the maori people and ‘white people’. The treaty was signed with the founding of nz and both parties signed it. Now there is a huge issue with the interpretation of the treaty (isn’t this any treaty). This effects the right to land ownership for maori people and a whole other list of things. I am interested in learning more about this because this seems like one of the only point of contentions, socially, between kiwis.

Rotorua has the largest population of Maoris in one place, and as weird as this sounds, I don’t know if they are all “kiaora” or “welcome” as the guides would lead us to believe. This area seems a little petty crime ridden, and we were told definitely not to walk alone at night anywhere in the town, and to especially not walk in the park behind the hostel. Maybe this is just good advice, but to me, it feels like there is something more behind it.

After this we were given a bus tour of rotorua, and learned a little more about the town. Apparently two tribes were vying for the area, and the ‘rule’ was that whoever had the oldest looking fishing nets had claim to the land. Well one of the tribes switched out the other tribes nets with new ones, so the next day, when they came together to compare nets, one tribe was screwed out of their land. Awesome.
Also, Rotorua is two ‘words’ in the Maori language, roto, which means ‘lake’, and rua which means ‘two’. Apparently it looks like two lakes because it is sliced across by two huge mountains.

Anyways, some guy from Europe who was preaching Christianity, bought a bunch of land from the Maoris along this lake after discovering that there were geothermal pools that heated the sand, or what he thought was ‘holy magic water’ or something. And, well, everyone credits him for the huge Tudor style spa located along the lake, that apparently is a Maori museum now. Ironic.

After we got back I took a much-needed shower and decided to go into town with a few other people to look for an adapter. The town center is probably a 10 minute walk from the hostel, but somehow got complicated by a map. After the four of us got our adapters from a local computer store, we all decided to head back, and on the way realized that we still needed shampoo/soap. What is the first place we see? A PHARMACY. Someone points out that they are likely to have shampoo/soap, so we enter, and are looking around for a bit, trying to decipher all of the different MEDICINAL soaps. I go up to the counter and ask the girl if they’ve got any regular shampoo, and she sort of smirks at me, and leads the way to their selection of 2 shampoos. I asked her why she thought it was funny, and she said ‘You came all the way to a pharmacy for shampoo, didn’t you think of the Dairy?’ So while two others, a guy from Nepal and some kid in a jewish fraternity decided to buy the 16 dollar shampoo, Andrew and I opted to wait.

We split from our two, hair product carrying companions to find the Dairy, or supermarket/grocery store. The same shampoo that they had bought for sixteen dollars, Andrew and I bought for four. Again, I laughed a little inside. Lesson learned: a five minute walk to the ‘dairy’ is worth it.
So after all of this Andrew and I explored some geothermal vents around Rotura, he got some pretty cool pictures, I forgot my camera, maybe tomorrow.

So we got back, had dinner, and are planning to go to a local bar tonight cleverly named “Lava”, after the geothermal and volcanic activity so widely known in this area.

So, now that I’ve left you with this update, maybe you’ll understand why I feel as though I’ve been here for weeks. Literally, this has been just ONE full day in NZ,(granted I have been up for what feels like 3 days) and I have learned so much, its amazing.

It is feeling a little weird here, to be quite honest. Today was extremely surreal and I cannot believe that I’m here. The bathroom is called the toilet, and they have an ingenious lever that shows when it is occupied or not. The power outlets have to be ‘switched on’ here to conserve electricity, and there are also two water flows for toilets to conserve water. All of this isn’t surprising when you consider that 70% of New Zealand’s power is generated via geothermal, hydroelectricity and wind turbines.
I am so grateful for the program introduction because I don’t think I’d ever get to see all of these places if I went straight to university, but it is a bit structured and stifling most of the time, but I’m sure it will be extremely different when I’m settled in Auckland.

Well tomorrow its off to the Waitomo caves for repelling underground water falls and tubing down lagoons inhabited by glowworms, I’m sure it will be just as amazing and eventful as today.

When will this turn into the lucid dream I'm craving?

Tomorrow is it, the big day when I start the travels. Its odd because today there were times that I felt ecstatic about the whole thing, and then there is still this feeling that this isn't real. To be clearer, this was just a dream a year ago. Its so surreal to see how something that meant so much to me is actually unfolding, unlike the clothes packed tightly away in my suitcase.

My last sunset in Naples seemed to perfectly mirror all of my feelings of anticipation for the trip. It looked painted on the sky, nothing close to reality, and yet there it was, right in front of me. It seemed to beckon followers, as if it wanted to prove to them that the painted sky never ends, only moves.
And I'll be moving a LOT tomorrow, following the sun.

I'll be up at around six to drive to miami around 7. My plane leaves for L.A. at 11: 30, which will have me there at 2:30, giving me a painfully long five hour layover in LAX, but then its off to Auckland, after a 15 hour plane ride.

Well here it is: to the start of my trip, to flying into summer, to skipping February 18th, to doubling my money, to becoming legally drunk!!!