Posts filed under 'Auckland'
See what happens when you get 2 months behind in your photos, you forget the names of places. And the drop down list on the dates gets all messed up, sorry about that, we can thank my not-so-brilliant guy I hired to do that bit once I was already travelling, and I have no computer of my own to fix it. Anyway, black water rafting, caving, tubing in the cave, rappelling down, and climbing out - wow! And my MOM even did it - way to go Mom!!
We can see the add - Even Grandmoms Can Do This!
Would you want to be our guide???
Here I go!
March 30th, 2003
Been in New Zealand one week today already. Tomorrow I am heading out of Auckland (finally) and going south, to a national park in the central part of the North Island for some hiking, or tramping as they call it in New Zealand. I’ve had an incredible time staying at Rebecca’s and I’m so grateful to her for giving me a home for a week. Over the weekend she took me to a few of the hills in Auckland which are actually dormant volcanoes (there are 12 of them IN the city!) for a perfect view of the city and harbour.
The America’s Cup is happening in Auckland now, and the town is buzzing with all the crew and sailboats and hype. One night we went down to the Viaduct at the waterfront where all the team camps are as well as a string of trendy bars along the wharf. It was fun to watch all the big shot America’s Cup boys flash their special bar tab cards to the bar tenders. A’scene’ for sure.
On Sunday Rebecca drove us out to Hot Water Bay where her parents own a B&B, and after I stopped gaping over their absolutely stunning house, we walked along the beach and then went back to have lunch with her parents, Gail and Trevor. Hot Water Beach is rather unique in that there are natural hot springs under the sand on the beach, so it’s a famous spot for people to dig their own hot tub in the sand and sit in the natural hot springs. Pretty cool! We didn’t dig a tub but we dug our feet down just enough so I could feel the heat. In the afternoon we left to make the 2.5-hour drive back to Auckland.
Yesterday while Rebecca was at work I ventured into downtown Auckland for the first time to check out Queen Street, the main shopping street in town. It was really exciting to be in Western shops with normal sizes!! (I’m still re-adjusting from my culture shock coming from Asia.) Did a bit of shopping to replace some of my tattered traveling clothes, and then I went over to the Sky Tower and up to the observation deck for another great view of the city.
Today I’ve been packing and organizing and getting ready to hit the road again. The first day of summer here was Sunday (Dec 1) and this whole week the weather has been perfect ?C bright sun, warm (but NOT humid!), and blue sky, and now that I am finally away from the equator there is much more sunlight in the day and a much longer dusk. Here it’s getting dark around 9pm, and Thailand it was 6 o’clock every day, like someone flicked a switch. Hard to imagine that I was living in the tropics for the past year really. Just before I left Bangkok they had the Bangkok Marathon, and get this, they started the race at 3:30am to avoid the worst of the heat! No joke! The pictures of the winners were at 6am and it was still dark outside! It really WAS hot there! And now being out of the humidity is such a treat. I’m enjoying it fully. Even if it is strange to hear Christmas songs like’let it snow, let it snow, let it snow’ when you’re shopping for bathing suits in the warm temperatures of the summer. It’s all part of the experience.
America Cup in Auckland on New Zealands North Island
One of the hills near Auckland
Hot Water Beach
December 3rd, 2002
I’m here!! Made it to New Zealand FINALLY after 4 plane rides from Bangkok - first to Jakarta, then Bali, then last minute to Melbourne after deciding that I didn’t want to spend the night in Bali and possibly be stuck there for a few days waiting for a flight (3 others did the same). It was an overnight flight to Melbourne arriving at 7am the next morning. From there we got lucky and were put on a Qantas flight direct to Auckland, The 4 of us were thrilled, and miraculously the luggage made it the whole way too.
I arrived in Auckland yesterday with my bicycle and massive duffel bag and after a thorough search from customs over my tent and bicycle tires (looking for dirt or foreign insects), I was released into the airport. And it was so great to be greeted by someone for a change! My friend Rebecca who I met last year in Thailand was there to pick me up. I was so happy! It was really good to see her again. We got all my stuff into her car and she took me to her flat in Auckland and it was so nice to be in a house and not a guesthouse, hostel, or bungalow! I can’t explain how happy I was to sit on a couch in a living room with a beer and have a chat with Rebecca. We spent the afternoon doing just that, and then ventured out for the only destination I had in mind - the supermarket.
But first we stopped by one of the hostels in town looking for my friend James from the UK who I first met in Ko Lipe, Thailand and then met up again in Byron Bay a few months ago and he’s now here in New Zealand traveling around as well. He knew I was arriving in Auckland but didn’t know I was coming by so it was a surprise. I think he was more than happy to have 2 girls stop by his hostel with a car offering to take him away for a few hours!
The 3 of us went to the supermarket together and then went back to Beck’s place to make dinner. Rebecca made us a local NZ cuisine, called Kumara, which are sweet potatoes cut thick and baked and eaten with sour cream. We chowed on chips, cheese, olives, and bread and I was in heaven! A good evening with great people was the perfect way to spend my first night in New Zealand.
Today is Thanksgiving and my turkey dinner was actually pasta with bruschetta and wine which we made at the house with Becks and her friend Ro. I was more than happy with that meal! I’ll call home tomorrow to say hello to the family; since we’re 19 hours ahead here it’s still the day before Thanksgiving at home!
November 28th, 2002
Well, Jakarta wasn’t exactly at the top of the list for the world tour, but here I am. Actually I’m on a plane OUT of Jakarta very soon. See, I was scheduled to fly from Bangkok to Auckland today with a stop in Bali, but I’m flying on Garuda Indonesia Airlines, and as you can imagine, there are not exactly lines of people heading to Bali or anywhere in Indonesia at the moment. So they’re been forced to cancel a lot of their flights. In Bangkok there was a swarm of confusion at the check-in line while the airline employees kept going into their little huddles and meetings until finally after one hour of everyone standing in line doing nothing, they cancelled the flight to Bali and put us all on a flight to Jakarta. Well ok, at least it’s in the right direction (towards Auckland), but I knew better than to ask for any further information because they were all clueless anyway and stressed out about having to deal with irate passengers. Worked out good for me though because I was able to sneak my bicycle AND my monster duffel filled to the GILLS (with a backpack, tent, 2 sleeping bags, stove, pots, rear panniers, handlebar bag, water bottles, sneakers, and clothes inside just to name a few of the items) on the check-in scale without so much as a second glance. And when I got on the plane I understood. It was a massive 747 and with less than 50 passengers, we all could have sat in first and business class and still had seats in between us. In fact the extra kilograms in my bag probably helped to stabilize the take-off and landing.
Anyway it was a very rushed goodbye to Thailand and the Land of Smiles after the hold-ups in the check-in line and I barely had time to get through customs and change money before the flight was boarding. Luckily though I had time to buy a mini-bottle of wine since I knew there would be no alcohol service on a Muslim airline.
Finally left Bangkok on the 3-hour flight to Jakarta. In Bangkok they told us we’d get a flight to Bali from Jakarta and I was hopeful but sceptical. Well, we got here and the airport was DESERTED. I can tell you first hand that there are no tourists in Jakarta, Indonesia. Reminded me of when I left JFK last October - just plain deserted. So the scheduled boarding on our flight to Bali was 5:20pm. Well 5:20 came and went and 5:50 (departure time) came and went and nothing happened. Finally at 6pm the airline announced that the plane would leave at 7pm and we were all offered a free transit dinner at the sky lounge restaurant. That was pretty cool.
Everyone (the whole 40 people) went from the gate to the restaurant with our little transit passes to get some grub. As for me, I wasn’t really hungry and the food was rather unappealing, and I kept thinking that I really just fancied a beer anyway. So that’s what I did - I used my dinner coupon on beer at the bar. I got one for free and paid for another, but I thought it was well worth the money. There is not a better stress-reliever for the weary traveller in the world. And I had to laugh over the luxury of it all, thinking back to Lao when waiting 3, 4, or 5 hours for a pick-up to fill with passengers was absolutely normal. I don’t think they would understand the concept of complimentary transit meals in Lao. Mind you it would only cost about 15 cents to buy your own meal anyway and the food would actually be good.
Two Bintang drafts later and I was suddenly feeling much better about the flight/ no flight situation. I mean who really cares anyway; it’s not like I don’t have time, and I got to see an amazing sunset from the airport terminal in Jakarta, so life is good.
So I am now actually getting ready to take off on the 1.5-hour flight from Jakarta to Bali, but the word on the street is that the Bali to Auckland flight has indeed been cancelled, so it looks like I’ll have to spend a night in Bali and hope that they run the flight tomorrow. I did say I was up for some adventure again and it seems as if it’s panning out already.
Bali should be interesting.
Sunset in Jakarta
…waiting for the next flight
November 26th, 2002
