I'm in Auckland and heading to the South Island ASAP!

Arrival in Auckland

After about 24 hours in the air and timewarping from April 14th to the 16th, I finally arrived in Auckland. The flights weren't so bad, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone helped me pass a huge amount of time in LAX. The flight was pretty swanky; Qantas Air is the way to go. Amazing food and snacks, plus hearing the accents, helped me prepare for the new world I was about to encounter. I must say that the steward went above and beyond his job duties by guiding me around the airport to make sure I got vegetarian options on my return Qantas flight from Sydney to LAX, and believe me it was a very nice gesture because I was not a pretty sight.

With my hiking boots cleared through biosecurity, I headed to the center city, which was much bigger and much more commercial than expected. I guess I thought that I would be dropped into semi wilderness adventure from the get-go, but Auckland is very modern and fashionable, but with a touch of the hippy surfer vibe. I headed X Base hostel, got cleaned up, wrote some emails home to the parents to let them know that my plane wasn't diverted by any volcanic ash and that yes, I arrived safely.

I had hoped to catch a bus or train out to Piha Beach, famous for black sand and The Piano, but it was a good distance away, and there really wasn't a feasible public transit route. Since I would be in the area for less than 24 hours I thought it too much of a hassle to rent the car and possibly get lost on my own before I got my bearings. I opted for a walking tour suggested by my Lonely Planet guidebook (thank you very much!), and familiarized myself with some sites much closer to the hostel. I got some refreshments at the Kiwi version of 7-Eleven, and checked out Suffragette Square (not really a square, more like tiny plaza with lots of modern art exhibitions), University of Auckland, Albert Park as in (Queen Victoria's Albert), a foaming fountain, and an asian food market, Food Alley. Props to New Zealand for being the first country to give women the right to vote in 1893. And I walked past the Food Alley building a few times thinking it was under construction or condemned, but it was a nice food court on the inside, and I was fixed up with some tasty, cheap Pad Thai.

At this point, I'd been walking around the downtown area for a while, and I was really aware of the difference in traffic patterns. Even though I was a pedestrian, I have the habit of looking left and stepping off the curb, which is not good when the traffic is coming from the right! Not that I've had any close calls, but I was definitely out of sorts at every intersection. I tried to check out the traffic signs and road markings to get familiar with them, so I'll hopefully be prepared for driving the campervan in a few days.

Train, Ferry, Train

Since I am writing this post with a few days to reflect, and I'm really glad that I set up a train to Wellington, a ferry to Picton, and another train to Christchurch even though it was a total of 17 hours aboard trains and 3 hours on the ferry. These three travel legs over two days made it optimal for sight seeing without the added time of stopping, paying for tours, wandering about and getting lost and found again. On the Auckland to Wellington Overlander (which covers almost the entire length of the North Island), I got to see the Auckland suburbs a bit, headed through Franklin County and Kings Country both of which had lots of farm animals, especially sheep, lots and lots of sheep, so I was reminded of Lancaster County scenery. The train made it around the railroad engineering awesomeness of the Raurimu Spiral which took us through many tunnels around the hilly landscape in two rotations. Shortly thereafter the train made a lunch stop in Mordor, by which I mean the Tongariro National Park, the second park in the world to be established after Yellowstone. I took a few photos of Mt. Doom, which wasn't so gloomy, and normally goes by the name Mt. Ruapehu.

After some more snaps of the countryside and seeing a huge display of windmills (240+), the sun set, and the train eventually rolled into Wellington.

I'm pretty happy with the inclusion of train travel in the beginning of my travels. Since they still have wood ties, I was reminded of the sway of the train from my old commuter route from Lancaster to Harrisburg a few years back, but it looks as if the railroad is switching over to cement ties, so getting thrown out of your seat or looking like a drunkard as you fall all over the place walking through the train cars will soon be a thing of the past here. I'm not complaining about the ride though, it was very classy to be in old-school train cars and have a cafe on board with lots of New Zealand treats (the spinach and egg sammie was all local products and delicious). I also think it'll be good to bookend my travels with long train trips since I'm still planning on going via rail from Montreal to Philly in early July. I feel like I'm making some environmentally conscious decisions (trains are better than planes, right?), and the long rides are less stressful and provide more time for guidebook reading and unwinding.

I checked into a retro hostel in Wellington, which used to be a bees knees hotel back in the day. I thought that I would prep myself for another early start since I was getting the run around for the ferry departure time (there's a big difference between 8:30am and 10:15am), but my Chinese roommate, Serena, convinced me that I would only be in Wellington once and should get a drink with her. She seemed a bit self-conscious of her English skills, so I thought I could be her wing girl as she was on the lookout for a Kiwi boyfriend while waiting for her Australian visa to be approved. Plus I wasn't going to turn down another night to try to some local wine and check out the scene. Well, apparently all the bars are closed in downtown Wellington by 11pm, so we went to Waterloo, the bar on the ground floor (which equates to the first floor in the U.S.) of the hostel. It worked out for the best because there was a rugby league team (comparable I'm guessing to intramurals) celebrating a win and a bartender from Atlanta who appreciated hearing a familiar accent and relayed some helpful tips about local wine.

I didn't go wild the previous night, but had some fun with the rugby guys who were very into karaoke. Awesome! This is my kinda place! But I was grateful I made it an early night since I was very ready to get some awesome pics of the harbor at sunrise and sort out the ferry departure time, it was 10:15! Boo! But it didn't matter much because I boarded early and watched Q+A, a TV program similar to Meet the Press, and got my dose of Sunday morning political talk and learned that Kiwis share many of the same concerns: student loan debt, climate crisis, and the Bernie Maddoffs of the world.

During the 3 hour ferry ride, I met a few locals who chatted me up about the best travel route, rabbit hunting (yeah, really), and cars (they might be an even bigger deal here than in the U.S. Imagine that!). I got some awesome pics once the sun decided to make an appearance, saw a huge school (?) of dolphins swimming by the ferry, and wondered about the luxurious vessel. It was pretty much a 3 hour cruise! There was even an option for a movie theater, but I figured Sherlock Holmes can be Netflix-ed when I get home, and I've already seen Up. This ferry would be far superior to flying any day!

Upon arriving in Picton, I walked over to my train connection and settled into my second train ride seat. And I should mention that seating is key. I had a single seat (rare) by a door, so I could go to the viewing platform easily without disrupting anyone, and was on the left side of the train (optimal for looking at the amazing coastline along the north of the south island). So I was blessed with great seating. I also had a window seat from Auckland to Wellie, so that worked out well too. It was a pretty non-eventful ride, but pleasant and gave me lots of time to incorporate the recent travel advice into my campervan plans. I had hoped for a whale siting, but I'll have to settle for some sealions chillin on the rocks. I wasn't ready with my camera for the dolphins or the sea lions, so I need to work out my camera battery charging issues and get some wildlife snaps!

I made it to my hostel without too many issues, but the taxi fees are accumulating. I need to work on finding cheaper transport alternatives. I worked on some more campervan details like if I can plug in my battery charger (yes!), where to buy groceries, long johns, and bug spray, plus I prepped for this blog posting! Yay!

So that's it. My first post from New Zealand. I wanted to post something before picking up the campervan, but have already gotten it and am posting from Fairlie on my way to Mt. Cook. I'm going to keep journaling and taking photographs, but it might be a while before I post again. The next posting should include some more great scenery and possibly shots of me paragliding! I wasn't too pleased with the photos from the train since I was using the moving image function, so they should improve as I make my way over to Mt. Cook, into Otago, and down to Fijordland.

Hope all is well where ever you are! Cheers!