Travel Journal:

New Zealand - Arriving Auckland


Arriving Auckland 2006-11-07
 


The flight was supposed to be 13 hours but it was only going to take us 12.5 hours. I was dreading this as I start getting stir crazy after five. Honestly it wasn't that bad. My flight was arriving at 5:15am so I figured I should try to stay awake the first half and sleep the second half and then my body clock would be set to EnZed time. I watched My Super Ex Girlfriend, You, Me and Dupree, and half of The Break Up.  I also finished reading a book by the chick who wrote Devil Wears Prada that I started on the flight to San Fran. After that I tried sleeping. I don't think I was every truly asleep but I dozed enough to feel like I had. Although after 12 hours on my ass I was ready to start checking for bed sores.

We arrived and I had no problems getting through customs. I showed them my hiking boots (they are anal about dirt and  other plant or animal based stuff coming in) but since I had washed off the soles I was good to go. It was 5:30 am. Blech. So I got an international calling card ($10) and left a message at my parents. Then I rented a vodafone sim card, but I didn't know the code for my phone and once I figured it out I still couldn't get it to work. D'oh. But I took it anyway since it's only $0.86 per day to rent the sim card and the only place to get them was the airport. I figured if I couldn't make it work in the phone that my friend unlocked for me (thanks blaze) then I'd return it when I flew to Wellington.

I caught the AirBus ($15) to the Aspen Lodge ($59/nt). The guy seemed to drive in stupid circles to get to it though. I arrived at 8:15am so obviously my room wasn't ready. Check in is at 2pm but the clerk said he'd try to have my room cleaned asap so I could check in. I put my bags in the storage closet. That was a bit concerning as they just gave you the keys to it and you went around the corner and put your stuff in.  I just had to have faith in the goodness of travellers to protect my laptop and camera because I sure as hell didn't want to lug them with me.

I think I'm somewhat known to my friends as being a planner. I decided, or really didn't have any time, to not plan this trip other than a few key transportation bookings. So I had no idea what I wanted to do. I noticed in my interminable shuttle bus rides there are a ridiculous number of starbucks (I'm talking NYC type frequency) in Auckland so I set out to find one and get some coffee.  The crosswalks had me confused.  There are walk lights but apparently you push the button and all traffic stops for people to cross. It seems like it is legal for people to cross with the light even if the walk light is off but no one really does it.

So anyway I got myself a medium skim no whip mocha latte ($5) and pulled out my guidebook. It was really overcast so I decided it was a good day to see the Auckland Museum. I knew the LINK bus to it was only $1.50 but I wasn't sure if I need a ticket or exact change so I ventured into the somewhat strangely named Britomart Transporation Center across the street. I picked up a bunch of travel brochures and found out that they will make change for you as long as it's not some huge bill. Cool.

So I got on the LINK right outside the Britomart Building. I was reading the routemap and I discovered there is a clockwise bus and a counter clockwise bus. The clockwise bus would have me there in 2 stops while the counter would go through thirteen stops. Guess which one I was on? Well I figured it was a way to see the whole city and embraced my cluelessness. It was also only 9:30am and the museum didn't open until 10am.

The bus system in Auckland is pretty nifty. They must have GPS on all the buses since there is an LCD screen that reads out what the next stop/attraction is and all the stops have signs that tell you when the next bus will be there. Now the only problem was that sometimes I noticed some attraction staying up for more than one stop so how do you know which is the best to get off at? I decided to get off at the 2nd on for the Auckland Museum which turns out was the exact one I wanted. Unfortunately there were no signs telling me which way the museum was and the map on the brochure was crappy. So I continuted down Parnell Road and I got to see the main Parnell shopping drag. It's really cute with lots of little restaurants and boutiques. It sort of reminded me of a small scale Soho. I saw the Parnell Inn which was one of the places I considered staying at. I walked down the road a bit and decided this was the wrong way and then I saw a street to which I could orient my map. I discovered that I went the wrong way. If I had turned right I would have in 20 feet hit the street I was supposed to go down to get to the musuem. Oops.

The Auckland Museum is located within the Auckland Domain which is a vast parkland (sorta like Central Park) that runs down to the waterfront. I went into the museum ($5 suggested donation) and checked my bag and jacket (free!). The ground floor is all Maori and native pacific cultural artifacts. There are some cool carvings and buildings and such. There were also a ton of schoolkids running around which is always such fun (not). There was also a section of English furniture and stuff that I skipped over because we gots that stuff in the USA. The second floor was the natural history section. There was a really cool interactive section on volcanoes. Then most of it was about the birds and sealife of NZ.  There were also a decorative arts section for the east and west but once again it's been there done that. The third floor is the war section. They have several galleries about WW1, WW2 and the New Zealand wars as well as memorials.

After all that (and I was taking the elevator to save my poor knees) I went down to the ground floor to get lunch in the BB Cafe. I believe BB is a chain. I got a chicken and avocado panini and a bottle of organic apple and black currant juice made by a NZ company called Phoenix ($11.30). It was good and I was totally pooped. I browsed the gift shop a bit and went and sat on the front steps to ponder my next move. The clouds had cleared up so that it was now mostly sunny. Meanwhile one of the classes came out and were sitting on the stairs as well (I was there first) and so I had all these little kids crawling all over me. They started taking photos so I left to catch the bus. The LINK is supposed to run every 10 minutes but I waited at least 20 min. There was a young Scottish couple waiting that I chatted with. They flew through Dubai and Singapore and said one leg of their trip was 20hrs! And here I thought 12 was bad.

So I got back to Aspen Lodge and my room was ready. Yay! It's probably about 8x12 with one window that looks out on an alley. It's got a twin bed, a plastic chair, a dresser and a nightstand. The dresser and nightstand are rather beat up looking but overall it's clean and comfortable enough. I was feeling super gross after the long flight and getting sweaty from walking so I took a shower. It's shared facilities on this side of the building (the cheap one!). I got hot water that ran out just as I finished up. It felt so good to be clean. Then I took a 2hr nap.

After my nap I pulled out the cell phone and the sheet of codes my friend sent and I decide to give it another try. I did some fiddling and finally got it to work .Yay! Now I just have to hope the charger I have also works with the 240v powersystem. It's not labelled so I don't know. Then I called my mom to tell her I was alive and give her the cell number. I also noticed a sign about wifi that said see the front desk. So I went back to my room and plugged in my laptop and discovered you need a login. D'oh. Guess I'll have to see how much that costs later.

I looked through my books to see what to do this afternoon but nothing is really screaming at me and I'm still quite tuckered out. I might just grab dinner and call it a day. So now I'm writing this entry up and my stomach is growling but it's not even 5pm yet. Maybe I'll go grab some tea (free!) from the lounge.

I decided to go for a walk. There is this really cool little park across the street from my hotel. Then I walked around a bit randomly and saw the shopping districts. It's amazing how many American brands and franchises are here. In one block I saw McDonalds, Burger King, Wendy's, Dunkin Donuts and Domino's Pizza. There were also several boardsport lifestyle stores in a row: quiksilver, billabong and rip curl. As for food there is an abundance of sushi and kebab joints.

I walked up by the skytower and just as I got there it started to rain.  So I ducked into the building which has restaurants, hotel, movies, etc. It also had tourist center and I wanted a booklet on the Coast to Coast walk. Meanwhile I pulled out my phone to see I missed Andy's phone call. So I called him back while browsing..and fidning the brochure I wanted.

It mostly stopped raining so I started walking back. I got a chicken kebab at KebabTime and took it to go. By the time I got back I was dead tired so I ate my kebab, did a little reading, and went to bed.

 
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