First Week in Auckland

So this first week has basically just been us settling in. I arrived at like 5am on the 22nd, hauled my heavy bag and bike to the hostel and left for orientation down Queen Street. This is the main street downtown and is comparable to Michigan Avenue. It’s much smaller and not as nice, but it’s where all the hustle and bustle takes place. When the crosswalks say go people move across the streets in all directions. People going diagonally across the intersection constantly bump into each other trying to reach the other side. It’s kind of amusing.

Lisa came later that day and we both fell asleep at around 7pm that night. Jet lag wasn’t too bad though. For the first 2 or 3 days I felt more tired at night, but that was it. Saturday we met this American guy, James, from New York. He was crashing at the YHA City hostel we were staying in. He did BUNAC / IEP (the same program I am doing) and was leaving the next day to go home after being here a year. He told us he was passing the torch. He and his friends took us out to the Viaduct Harbor at the bottom of Queen Street and we stayed out until around 6 in the morning. A few bars down there will occasionally stay open until the last person leaves!

Sunday we went job searching. We both lucked out and found jobs our first day. Lisa’s is at an international restaurant, and mine was at a Brazilian restaurant. The manager told me I’d have to wear my hair high up in a bun, black shoes with black socks, red lipstick and wear a tight uniform. Needless to say, I didn’t go back there again. So the rest of the week I searched for another job. I finally found one at a higher end outdoor gear shop called Bivouac Outdoor. I then found another job at a catering company, The Relish Group, that does fancy events and parties downtown. Bivouac doesn’t know I don’t want to live in Auckland for my whole time and not wanting to completely piss them off I think I’ll decline their offer.

My bike arrived safe and sound and I’ve taken it out a few times for a ride. Two difficult things about that: they drive on the left side of the road and it is unbelievably hilly here! Maybe I’m just used to St. Louis’ flatland. It really reminds me of San Francisco in that regard though and there are bike messengers everywhere. The route I take is about 30 miles along the coastline … so really I can’t complain!

We are living in the YHA International hostel now. Most of the people staying there are adults actually and there are even little kids here and there. We stay in an 8-person room which barely fits all the bunk beds. It sucks to never be able to unpack and constantly be searching for things in your bag. Last night, Friday, we met some other travelers at the hostel. They were from all over and they all came on their own. One guy was from LA, one from France, one from Germany, two Brazilians, one Swiss and two Irish. One of the Brazilian guys is being sponsored to cycle around the world for education in Brazil. He has mapped out his entire journey and will travel through Asia, Africa, Europe and North America. The whole trip will take him 3 years. He’s doing it all on an old Fuji mountain bike with 50kg of luggage! We went out that night to the Viaduct with the Swiss and Irish guys. Lisa and I even found Erdinger (my favorite beer from Germany) in one of the Irish pubs. It was a fun night.

I’m having some trouble uploading my pictures so until I get the software shipped here they’ll have to wait. We’ve done two day trips to islands right off Auckland’s coast called Devonport and Rangitoto. Devonport is a cute little town which reminded me of Maine and Rangitoto is an island with a volcano we hiked up. I’ll write more about them once I have pictures to post.

So there’s the weeks recap. Hopefully I will write more often so the postings aren’t so long!