Spent the last few days in the downtown district of Auckland. After waiting for Al's plane to get in, we took a shuttle up to the city and found the hostel I had heard about. Although it's in a very central location, Base Auckland turned out to be a waste of money in my opinion. Thin walls, disgusting carpets, broken elevators, and not-overly-friendly backpackers made us look around for a different hostel our second night. We ended up staying further uptown at a super cute local hostel called Silverfern. For basically the same price, the place was clean, quiet, and full of awesome Aussi's who were keen to take out two Americans.
Yesterday, we explored the city and went on a manhunt for the Auckland museum. To describe Auckland, imagine San Francisco with a warmer, more humid climate and more people with funny accents. Also imagine that no street runs straight for more than a block or two. We ended up finding the place after a couple hours and the museum itself was much better than expected. Located at the top of a hill in the Auckland Domain (which is basically a large central park area), you have a view of the whole downtown area up against the water. Giant cranes lean over the harbor (Kiwi spellcheck tries to correct me to say harbour) and load huge barges while cruise ships take up the rest of the dock. Beautiful view, slightly impacted by the big rainstorm that's currently coming through the area.
After trekking around the city all day, we went back to our hostel and a group of Aussi's that have been living in the city for the past 2 months offered to take us on a bar-crawl in celebration of one of the girl's birthdays. As a sidenote, beer is incredibly expensive here; a pint can cost anywhere from $6-$8. The main appeal of the bar-crawl was that you paid $10 to get a free beer at each of the 4 bars. Also had my first experience with being PAID to buy beer; when trying to purchase a drink, the bartender handed me back my money and gave me a $10 bill and a wink. You, sir, made my night.
Sarah arrived this morning and we spent most of today trying to meet up, rent a vehicle, and drive to the Coromandel region. Camper van didn't work out (yet), but we managed to find an economy car at a rental dealership half-way across Auckland. While it's small, the three of us agreed we're lucky we found something. Summer in NZ apparently means everything is rented! I had a crash course in driving on the left-side of the road and we managed to get our bearings enough to head south.
If Auckland is like SF, Coromandel is like the most beautiful parts of Hawaii. We're currently sitting in the living area of a sweet hostel close to the beach. It's been pouring on and off all day, but we're hoping for some sun tomorrow to make it to the renowned beaches around the peninsula. Content to sit and relax on the covered porch with the hostel cat this evening and get an early night!
To sum up: having an incredible time. Glad to be out of the city and finally in the country, but understand now why people say Auckland is a poor representation of Kiwi life. Funny how almost a third of the population lives in the Auckland area alone!
Until next time,
Kate
P.S. They have amazing Asian food here!
No comments:
Post a Comment