I Felt Lost and Found with Every Step I Took: 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.