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.