Under The Influence.

January 12-19th, 2008

With every intention to remain on the move like the traveling man I now am, I booked seven days in a downtown Auckland backpackers under the understanding that I would be able to use those nights whenever I chose to within a year. This understanding in mind, I planned on staying in Auckland for only three days, using the time wisely to plan for a trip up to the Northland area of New Zealand. The Northland area is the bit above Auckland and, of course, has the northernmost point, Cape Reinga. Three days were required for planning as I hoped to do five days of sailing and diving lessons respectively, two days of surfing lessons, and to do some sight seeing which I will fill ya'll in on next few posts which will be coming soon.

It's funny how three days of work can turn into seven isn't it? The first evening at the hostel was meant to be a productive planning night. An overcrowded kitchen, however, inspired me to have a nice little picnic up the extinct volcanic cone called Mt. Eden. I'd heard from some folks in the dorm that it was a worthwhile venture, but upon setting out for the picnic, I hadn't a clue where it was. To lazy to go back up the unreliable elevator back to my room to get a map, I set out guided only by instinct and kind locals. Six worthwhile kilometers later, I reached the top. Mt. Eden is probably Auckland's finest viewpoint with an unobstructed 360 degree view of the city.

The top of Mt. Eden looking towards downtown Auckland. This photo was taken my second time up. The night before, there were about 15 black and white cows in the bowl grazing. The cows cause the terracing in the grass from their trails. It was nice to see cattle in a public park, but where there are cows there are cow pies. Extreme caution is suggested if one chooses to tramp around.

Having returned to the hostel from Mt. Eden too tired to do any more planning for the trip, I retired to bed for the night. I woke determined not to procrastinate the planning any more and headed straight for the travel info center of the hostel. I planned in earnest until about 11:00 am, (It took so long because at the time, I didn't have a clue of what to do) then took a break from planning in my room for some lunch. Moments after preparing my gourmet lunch of an apple and nut bar, a girl entered the dorm and the sidetracking began. My modest lunch took an hour to eat due to conversation with the Swede. Next, I found myself heading back to Mt. Eden with her where I had already been less than 24 hours ago. Most shocking, and once again, due to the female influence I even shopped for some clothes.

That's me posing with a statue of David and my new shirt. I found the shirt in a Japanese clothing shop and I bought it because it was peculiar: peculiar because there's a picture of a statue of Alexander the Great wearing headphones and a caption below it boldly stating "I SMASH." I'm wearing the shirt as I write this.

Would this sidetracking have occurred without the influence of a female? No. For the next two days, I was under female control going as far of track as to temporarily change travel plans in order to travel with the Swedish gal. Of course, I'm just kidding about 'female control.' I actually spent a great couple of days touring Auckland which I would never have done without the lovely female influence. Because I now had somebody to do dorky touristy activities with, Anna, the Swede, and I rented bicycles and rode twelve kilometers out to Achilles' Point on a 10 km bike path which passed no less than five nice swimming beaches. On route, we stopped for a picnic. Simply adorable, I say.

Picnic at an Auckland beach. Brilliant!

Looking back to downtown Auckland from Achilles Point. The coastline you can see is where we rode our bikes.

As previously mentioned, I almost traveled south with Anna, thereby ditching my plans for the north. Conveniently for me, as my heart was set on heading north, the hostel receptionist would not let me transfer my booked nights thereby giving me reason to continue on my original plan. Anna headed south early the next morning and I finalized plans for my grand Northlands tour. When booking my sailing lessons, I was offered work after a conversation with the Canadian proprietor of Great Escape Yacht Charters cleaning boats. Work opportunities here are plentiful. I haven't done any work on the boats yet, but I'm heading back to see about work soon.

For the remaining two days in Auckland, I endeavored to visit the sleepy and antiquated section of Auckland called Devonport, and also to visit the Auckland museum. Devonport has New Zealand's Navy base, and interestingly on the subject of the military, there's a volcanic island overlooking Auckland harbor which was fortified to defend New Zealand from suspected threats from the Russians pre-World War I and the Japanese in World War II. It was kind of like New Zealand's version of Fort Rodd Hill in good ol' Colwood, BC, in that it was never used. It was a quaint effort at defense for the country, but it did have some interesting and eerie tunnels dug throughout the hill as protection for the guns and soldiers, many of which are still accessible today.

Auckland harbor's humble defenses (for WW II).

Sample of the 'eerie' tunnels built into North Head. I forgot my flashlight so I got spooked.

The afternoon of my final day in Auckland was spent at the Auckland Museum which was contained in a beautiful granite building on top of a grassy knoll. Oh, how I love a good grassy knoll. In my opinion, any museum with authentic medieval armor is a quality museum. I'm easy to please in that respect. Aside from the arms and armor though, the museum had thousands of Mauri artifacts, local flora and fauna information, geological information (mostly about volcanoes) about New Zealand, and a whole floor dedicated to New Zealand military history which was actually quite powerful. New Zealand as a country has done much more than its fair share during both world wars. There's a lot to do in Auckland but I was ready to move on to my promising future in the Northlands. Conveniently the next morning the bus to Paihia came to pick me up and take me to the promised land of work and wealth.

Piha Beach

January 6-12th, 2008

Two hours and one reminder phone call after my scheduled meeting time with the Piha Surf Shuttle, I was off to Piha Beach. Under an hour out of Auckland, Piha Beach manages to remain flawlessly beautiful and uncrowded. About a half-hour out of the city, the tropical rain forest starts and so does the beauty of New Zealand (at least for me). The drive was one of the most memorable of my life. The rugged terrain, the green, the open ocean, the waves, and the small town of Piha all took my breath away. I found myself a nice place to set up camp in Piha Domain Campground and stayed there for seven days. I walked, ran, tramped (hiked ahaha, Em, they actually do call it tramping) swam, surfed, played guitar, read, wrote this, and just chilled in general. All of these good things lead to me having one of the finest weeks of my life.

The view of Piha Beach as I drove in from Auckland. I camped in that brown field on the right.

My camp in that brown field.

Nothing like a little black sand to remind you that you need a tan.

A video of Piha Beach.

A picture of me swimming off of the top of the below pictured waterfall.

Kitekite Falls - one of the many places I tramped to.

Easy Customs

January 4-5th, 2008

Remembering from the last post the I was given a hard time even at the check-in line at the LA airport, the customs at New Zealand comparatively was dreamy. They didn't even ask a single question or request to see any documentation. I simply stated my intentions of entering the country on a visa and the customs officer stamped my visa. That was it, I was able to enter the country. After a twelve hour flight and the stress I encountered at the LA airport, I don't think I could have handled any additional complications, so the express customs was what I needed.

Arriving in Auckland without a hitch, I stammered around in a daze. Even thought there's actually only a three hour difference in time, not much sleep on the plane coupled with the heat and humidity lead me to feel what I'd guess to be jet-legged. By mid-afternoon, having walked most of the downtown of Auckland, I lay down to sleep in Albert park. After I recovered enough to function again, I checked into the Nomads Fat Camel Hostel (don't go there if you like anything to be moderately nice) and immediately left because I wasn't fond of the dungeon-like rooms. I proceeded to walk around town for the rest of the night until, once again, I passed out, this time in a semi-proper bed.

Having compiled a long list of items to purchase before setting out on a week long camping trip to Piha Beach, I had my work cut out for me on the 5th. Despite my long list of obligatory shipping, however, I became distracted by the Auckland harbour ferry tour. The tour was outstanding. It took me under the Auckland City Bridge to Devonport, Mt. Victoria, North Head, and Rangitoto Island, but upon returning to the harbour, I realised more than before that time was tight for shopping. The shopping goddess must have been on my side as I had successfully completed all of the shopping by about 5:00 pm. Most importantly, I found a guitar which I now love. Thank you so very much Grandma and Grandpa. You are too good to me. Exhausted, I returned to my room where I met my roomies who were all very pleasant and went for some beers.

Albert Park - where I passed out after a long flight and a long walk through downtown Auckland.

Beautiful Auckland at night.

Pre-flight Plight

January 4, 2008

Over the past ten months since booking my flight and receiving my visa, I have reviewed the procedures for entry into New Zealand well over ten times. One would think my preparation would be over-the-top, but after I handed my passport and ticket information to the grizzly NZ Airlines Receptionist, she greeted me asking, "do you have your green card?" Upon hearing that question, a nasty cold sweat broke from me which I knew would begin fermenting in the following four or five hours, that is, if I were able to even get on the plane. I know what a green card is but I didn't know Canadians needed one to go to New Zealand. All I could think to do was hand her the thick stack of documentation that I had collected during my application process and explain my situation. This documentation didn't satisfy her, nor did my story. "Oh, this is a Canadian passport, you don't need a green card," she said moments later very unapologetically. My nerves settled for a moment until just a few of her keystrokes later, she found my next flaw. "Do you have a *$%# &*% (those symbols represent her mumbling two words) ticket?"

I asked for her to repeat, "sorry?"

Again she asked, "Do you have a *$%# &*% ticket?"

"Not that I know of." My Cold sweat began again. "No, but I do have more papers here" I pleaded handing her the rest of the documentation. "What is it for?" I asked.

Smart was her reply, "Well, we need to know you're coming back from NZ."

Once again at a loss, I handed her the work visa.

She drawled, "This expires in March."

"Well, no," I replied, "I have to activate it before March, then It's good for a year."

While walking away and without prompt, she said, "I'm going to have to speak with my supervisor."

After one full minute; enough time for me to think about what I'm going to do when I missed the flight, she and her super come back to the counter. If physical volume increases supervisory skills, this supervisor was very capable. He immediately recognized that there was an extra zero in the passport number which cleared whatever the flag was that was on my account which required the *$%# &*% ticket be presented before my entry into NZ. I received no apology and no eye contact for the duration of the transaction, but I was alright with their rudeness because I was then free to enter NZ with my new body odor.