New Zealand Part I

13 March 2008
Auckland, New Zealand
                13 wonderful hours later on Aerolineas Argentina we arrived in Auckland, New Zealand at 4:40am.  We exited the plane and went through customs. 
                The cheapest way to get into town is to take the Airbus.  It costs $15 one way, or $22 round trip.  Since we were going to have to come back to the airport in 3 days, the round trip fare was the best rate.  The ride took about 45 minutes.  We arrived in the center of the city around 8:00.  Luckily we were able to check into our hostel early because no one used it the day prior. 
                The room was decent and most importantly clean.  Unloading our bags, we then went out to check out the city.  At this point neither of us was too tired from the time change and jet lag.  We just did our own walking tour of the city. 
                Auckland is about as modern of a city as we are likely to visit.  And in true “Kiwi” fashion you can do a number of extreme activities right in the city including bungee jumps from the bridge or a controlled jump from the top of the Sky City tower falling around 80 mph to the ground hundreds of feet below.  As we wandered around Doug excitingly found a Nando’s (an awesome chicken restaurant he and his best friend Sean first ate at in London), this would become our lunch stop later on.  The city had all the American amenities; McDonalds, Starbucks, Burger King, Subway, etc.  We felt at home.
                After filling our stomachs at Nando’s we decided to have a shower, and a small nap.  A couple hours later, we got up, and ventured to the grocery store.  The hostel had a very large kitchen, and was perfect for making meals.
                The grocery store was just like home with fresh vegetables, a bakery, and all the other fun stuff.  We picked up some turkey, cheese, pasta, marinara sauce, microwave popcorn, and some drinks.  Then back to the room for the night.  We were both really tired by now.

14 March 2008
Auckland, New Zealand
                Up early we set out for an internet café down the street.  We found a free Wi-Fi place in a café (internet here is around $6 USD an hour) down the street and wanted to make use of it.  Once we were done “surfing” we started wandering back and came across an “All Blacks” store.  The All Blacks are the national rugby team of New Zealand and have a long history of having successful teams.  While inside the store Anna thought we should ask the guy about getting rugby tickets for the upcoming Blues game.  He pointed us down the street to an information booth that supposedly sold them.  At the information booth they said they had recently passed off responsibility to a local sports store and gave us directions.  At the sport store they were very accommodating and found us seats for $17 each (when we looked on Ticket Master it was going to cost us $40 each for seats).
                In the local square we found a bunch of little stands set up with jewelry and hand bags and what not.  We spent some time looking around.  After wandering around we sat down on a nearby bench to have a small lunch of crackers, cheese and deli sliced turkey.
                Next stop was a brewery tour for Red Lion and Steinlager beers.  We hiked a couple miles across town and arrived about 5 minutes before the tour was to begin.  There were about 5 others with us.   After going through a small little museum we were taken into a small theater for a video presentation.  They started out telling us that beer was actually first started in the middle east and its evolution up through Captain Cook (who brought beer to the South Pacific) and until today.  Then we were off around the plant.  They showed us in the tour all the main ingredients included in beer, then on to some of their older advertising.  They showed us some of the storage facilities with the pipelines that worked their way to the main plant.  From there we saw the factory floor where the beer was bottled or canned and then put into cases.  The highlight of the tour, we were brought to the tasting room.  He claimed this was the freshest beer we would probably ever taste.  We were given about 20 to 30 minutes to drink all we wanted.  After a few glasses they closed up the bar and we headed back into downtown.
                For dinner we set off for some Japanese or Chinese food (which there is an abundance of due to the proximity of Asia).  We found a little restaurant that seemed popular with poor starving students, so we figured it was good enough for us.  Not being able to figure out what was on half the menu we played it safe and Doug had garlic beef dish and Anna had teriyaki chicken.  Both came out in a rice bowl with lettuce and a bit of ginger. 
                Then it was off to find Anna her desert.  We came across a cookie joint and bought some to take back to the room for the night.

15 March 2008
Auckland, New Zealand
                Today we decided to head off to see if we could find some cheaper snorkel gear.  Anna found a blurb in one of our travel guides about a discount sports store.  After walking a couple miles we found the store and discovered they didn’t have any cheaper snorkel gear.  We decided to go back to the first store which had a sale on snorkel gear; we had been to the day before.   The store was a few miles back past downtown, bought our snorkel gear and headed back for lunch.
                On the way we heard music and people.  As we rounded a corner we stumbled into a St. Patrick’s Day Parade.  We stayed and watched the people for a while and then headed back for lunch.
                At the hostel Anna fired up some pasta and we opened up some genuine New Zealand wine.  After the first sip we decided that it would also be the last (to be fair it was the cheapest the wine in the store). 
                With rugby tickets in hand we asked the girl at the front desk how we get to the stadium (which is outside of the city).  After telling us we could walk, then that we should take a bus to a bus stop, then walk to another bus stop, then take another bus, we headed out.  We left a couple hours early to ensure we had time to get lost.  While trying to find the first bus stop Anna found a bus schedule and found a nearby bus stop that would take us direct.  We walked to the bus stop and were picked up a few minutes later.  The bus driver said he would tell us where to get off at because it was a bit of a walk.  After about 30-45 minutes on the bus we rounded the corner and there it was.  The bus stopped and a bunch of us started to get off only to have the bus driver stop us and tell us there was a closer stop.  At the closer stop we disembarked and headed to the stadium.  One girl was running ahead of us and her friends.  When Doug mentioned that she was really excited to go to the game (since we were still really early).  Her friends said that there was a college game on before hand and that our tickets got us in for that game too.  We found our seats, which were quite good and watched a little over half of the college match. 
                While they were setting up for the big game four teams of little kids came out and did some “pee wee” rugby.  This was even better than the college match, watching the little kids run and bounce off each other; it was hilarious, exciting and just plain fun to watch.
                By the time the big game kicked off the stadium was near full and the home team, “The Blues,” had their mascot, “Blue Beard the Pirate,” brought out on a pirate ship complete with a firing canon and huge flame spurt from near the mast. 
                The game was exciting; at the half the match was near even but at the end of the match the opposing team figured out The Blues defense and scored a bunch of points to win the game.
                Back into the city Anna was looking for ice cream so we did our first stop at a McDonalds during our trip.  They were advertising $1.00 soft serve cones (quite a bargain here), but instead they gave us bad news, “Our soft serve machine is broke.”  Burger King was next door with a similar deal however.  Then it was back to the room for the night.

16 March 2008
Auckland, New Zealand
                Today we were to fly to Nadi, Fiji at 1:50pm.  Confirming the flight 2 days prior, the lady working told us to be at the airport 3 hours early.  We got our stuff gathered together, did our internet checking, and had a bit of breakfast.  At 10:00 we checked out of the hostel, and walked down to the bus stop.
                The airbus to the airport runs every 20 minutes from different stops downtown.  The ride to the airport is about 45 minutes without traffic.  After waiting about 15 minutes the bus picked us up.  Then 45 minutes later we were at the airport.  Waiting in line to check in for our flight we met a girl from Victoria, BC (Canada).  She was going through Fiji back home.  One of the first comments about Fiji she said was, “Once you go snorkeling Fiji, you will never find a better place.”  Right then we looked at each other in awe.  The brand new snorkeling gear we had just bought was sitting underneath the bed back at the hostel.  $%^&*! This was not the time for forgetting something important. 
                Doug waited in line at the check in, and Anna ran to the phone to call the hostel to see if they found the snorkeling gear.  Anna called 3 times and there was no answer.  She then ran back to Doug, he was at the counter.  Anna gave her passport to the airport attendant for verification, and ran back to the phone to call again.  Finally someone answered the phone; he didn’t work at the hostel but, since the phone kept ringing continuously he thought he should answer the phone.  He took a message, and promised he would pass this on to the guy working.  Doug finished checking in.  The decision was made he was going to take the bus back to Auckland (45 min), check the hostel for the gear, and take the bus back to the airport (45 min).
                After Doug went to the bus stop, Anna called again to the hostel.  This time the guy working answered the phone.  Anna went through the process of trying to explain to guy at the front desk (who had limited English) we had left two new set of snorkeling gear underneath the bed of room 51.  He said he would go check the room and Anna should call back in 10 minutes. 
                10 minutes later promptly Anna was on the phone calling to make sure the gear was still there.  Thank goodness the guy had good news; he had the bag with the snorkel gear inside.  Doug was already on his way, and with no cell phone there was no way to contact him if the snorkel gear was not found. 
                Meanwhile Doug had pleaded his case to the bus driver.  She was sympathetic to his case and told him to just jump on board (thus not having to pay the $21 roundtrip fee).  Doug then borrowed a fellow passenger’s map and he talked with the driver about different places he could be dropped off so he could run to the hostel and then jump back on for the return leg.  The driver had a better suggestion than the one Doug offered and the plan was set.
                At stop #2 (the bus has around 13 stops) Doug jumped off and was happy to discover that nearly the entire route he had to run to the hostel was downhill (which is really nice when you are in a hurry).  At the hostel he saw the bag behind the desk and waited for another gentleman to finish before identifying himself and grabbing the snorkel gear and heading back down to the bus stop.  Thankfully Anna’s phone calls had worked since picking up the gear was so easy.  Doug was able to walk down to the stop and then waited for about 15 minutes for the same driver to show up.  Back at the airport he tipped the driver a few bucks for a “cold one” later and handed her a card too.  If she is reading this…THANKS AGAIN!!
                Anna waited patiently for Doug to come back outside next to the bus stop.  At 12:45 Doug got off the bus.  Our boarding passes said the plane was to board at 1:05pm. We still had to go through security, get stamped out of the country, and find our gate…lots to do with so little time.
                Luckily security was quick, the customs guy was brief with our passports, and the gate was nearby.  Everything went well.  Arriving at the gate everyone was sitting down and the plane was not to board for another 15 minutes.  We are still getting used to “Foreign time.”  Buses, planes, anything with a time schedule are pretty much continuously late. 
                Everyone boarded the plane about half past one and we took off on schedule.

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