Here’s an Auckland to-do list, in chronological order.
We were in Auckland longer than we’ve been in any single place since (11 days), so if you start going ADD on me I’ve conveniently bolded the headlines for you.
Day 0: Sleep.
But first, get really excited about the view out the front window of the folks who have graciously taken you in:
Looking over this balcony is when it hit me that I am now on the other side of the planet.
Day 1: Sleep.
It’s important to hit the ground running. So be sure to do that tomorrow.
Day 2:
Watch the New Zealand National Trampoleening Championship.
In the weeks before traveling to a foreign country you spend a lot of time imagining what you’ll be doing your first days there. Then you go do something like this instead.
Today was the natural result of befriending a trampoleening coach on day 1. We learned words like “barani” (front flip with a half turn) and “rudi out” (two front flips in pike position with a twist and a half at the end). I aspire to incorporate either of these terms into regular conversation at least once before I die.
This photo is more interesting if you imagine that both people in the air have never done this before and have absolutely no idea how they’re going to land.
Watch a live rugby game.
This is more what I’d been expecting. We went to the Eden Park stadium with a man named Eldon (and his friend Rowland) who hadn’t been to the local games for a while. He believed that his team’s mascot is now a potato.* This made him rather upset.
Understandably.
-Eldon: What is that?!
-Rowland: Potato.
-Eldon: …No… I can’t believe our mascot is a potato.
-Rowland: It’s Hira Bhana potatoes. They’re the sponsor. They’re good potatoes.
-Eldon: …This is just terrible.
*Technically the potato is not the team’s mascot, it’s just the sponsor’s mascot and it happens to enjoy hanging out at their rugby games, but it’s more amusing if Eldon doesn’t ever know that.
All potatoes aside, rugby is super intense. Unlike American football, players don’t stop with each down, they just toss the ball to the guy behind them and keep trucking. No one wears any sort of pads. It’s the Rugby World Cup, so the Allblacks, the NZ team, are a BIG DEAL here, with a capital BIG. The team’s flag is plastered all over the country, so much that I mistook it for some alternate national flag my first days here. The official national flag, by contrast, I’ve only seen maybe 3 times.
Day 3: Tour Devonport.
Eldon recovered from the Great Potato Trauma and gave us a tour of Devonport (on the North shore of Auckland over the Auckland Harbor Bridge); docks, ships, wind and water. I got to try a very NZ beverage at a nearby cafe: feijoa juice. Feijoa tastes like what starfruit juice would probably taste like: subtle, tropical and slightly tart.
ALSO: Test drove a van. More on that later.
Day 4: See the gannet colonies.
Gannets are cool little sea birds that catch the wind with the tips of their wings and hang in the air like… cool little sea birds. A large colony of gannets crowd on the rocks in Muriwai, so many that some circle the rocks, wheel off and circle again before they can find an open space to land. You can hear them squawking about overpopulation, the lack of parking places and the shortsightedness of urban planning as they circle overhead.
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The wind here is powerful, and when we round a corner to our first view of the colony our eyes and face are peppered with grains of airborne sand. Wind sends everything flapping, and my camera hovers by its strap around my neck.
After about twenty minutes, Sheena, our gracious guide, noticed the following:
“Oh dear…”
Sheena: “Oh, dear, you’ve got poo on you.”
“Where?!”
Sheena: “On your sleeve. Oh, it’s all over your jacket actually. Don’t laugh at her, you’ve got it too. Parker, it’s on your jacket as well. How did you get it in your hair?”
“It’s everywhere!”
Sheena: “When you’ve been pooed on, it’s time to leave.”
Consider that saying. She’s a veritable fount of wisdom, that Sheena.
Day 5:
Buy marino gear.
We knew we’d be heading to the cooler South island eventually, so we decided to stock up on warm clothes. We made a quick trip to the nearest Icebreaker, one of NZ’s marino (wool) clothing brands.
By that I mean we spent half the day driving around lost. We chalked this off as “driving practice.” When we did finally find Icebreaker, we also found Icebreaker’s price tags. These are the kind of price tags you set back down gingerly. Icebreaker encourages layering, which is tricky because they also encouraging paying $300 for a sweatshirt and mortgaging your house for a sweater. We had an epiphany: we don’t need warm clothes after all. Warm clothes are stupid.
Day 6:
Walk around downtown.
This is my first legitimate travel suggestion: The book Insight Guides: Explore New Zealand has great walking routes and maps for all the major NZ cities. Highly recommended.
We walked the loop in the book. Fish and chip shops are an NZ staple, so a word of advice: if you’re walking downtown Auckland, look for a fish and chips shop. You will only find Asian shops, but keep looking anyway. If you grudgingly settle for a hotdog stand, do not then walk past it to check if the mall’s foodcourt is still open; it is not. This gives the hotdog stand just enough time to close as you walk back. You will have to eat a Subway sandwich instead, and it will taste like defeat.
Downtown Auckland. There’s about 1.5 million people in Auckland, which makes up 32% of NZ’s total population.
Day 7:
Go a-fishing.
In the evening of day 6, we get a call from a traveling minister named John:
“Hey, would you lads like to come out on the ocean tomorrow, go fishing and maybe see some dolphins?”
The answer to this question is always yes.
John drove us to the pier in Hauraki Gulf and we boarded the boat of a fellow named David (not me, another one). Handshakes ensue.
“Watch your head on that light, Parker,” says David. “I’m not worried about your head. I’m worried about my light.”
And we’re off across the ocean, chopping through the waves, Parker bouncing up and down in his seat like he’s riding some invisible horse. We scan the sky for birds and the waters for dolphins. The gannets that we learned about in Muriwai make another appearance. They’ll suddenly divebomb the water for fish at up to 80 mph, particularly in areas where a dolphin pod has rounded up a large group of fish to eat.
Obligatory fish photo.
I did get to reel in a fish, a kahawai. And we did get to see dolphins. They curl out of the water and into it again in flashes, like another set of asynchronous waves. Then they drift close to the boat and veer away again, or vanish under it.
See Tiritiri Bird Sanctuary
David had us hop out at the Tiritiri bird sanctuary. It’s a quick walk with good views of the ocean and a chance to see a cool bird or two. Or, alternatively, it’s a full day of moving quietly and carefully and waiting patiently on provided benches along the trail with the guarantee of seeing bucketloads of awesome birds. But ain’t nobody got time for that, so we tromped around like small elephants.
I didn’t get any good photos of birds, so here’s a picture of not birds.
Days 8-10:
Go on a tramp.
We did a one-day-two-night tramp (hike) from Whatipu to Huia with the West Auckland mission (Bible study group). We made lots of new friends.
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Make friends at Omaha beach.
We rode with four of our new tramp friends to a young people’s gettogether at Omaha Beach. We played soccer on the beach, as well as various beach games that are not cricket but use a cricket bat. I innovated these games by ignorantly holding the cricket bat backwards every time.
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Day 11: Buy a van.
We attempt to purchase a van. All. Day. Long. With 3 unsuccessful trips to the bank.
Turns out there’s this thing called a withdrawal limit. I’d forgotten about that.
Day 12: Leave.
We actually purchase a van, and we drive the van to Rotorua, thus ending this blog post.
Fare thee well, Auckland.
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