New Zealand - Auckland

Day 11 - Thursday, February 2

Up until now, I've tried to keep the posts pretty short, which as many of you know is not easy for me. This one, however, is a long one. My apologies. Feel free to skip this one, it's really not interesting enough to justify the length.

In Fiji, they often use the expression "Fiji time" which basically is their way of saying that Fijians are very laid back, and as a result, punctuality isn't their strong suit.  So if someone says to meet at 8:00, anywhere from 8:00 to 8:30 is expected and acceptable. And "5 minutes" could easily mean 30.

The trip advisor reviews for Wailoaloa Beach Resort were mostly good, but one bad review stuck out in which a guy had to catch an early flight, talked to the receptionist the previous day, who told him he could get his free breakfast at 545 and the shuttle would leave at 6 or 615 or something like that. In any case, the review goes on to say that when he got to the reception building at 545 no one was there, not the driver for the shuttle, no receptionist, and no sign of breakfast, and apparently no one showed up for a while and he barely made his flight. I was hoping that was a one time thing, but after a week in the islands and experiencing "Fiji time," I was concerned that it was a little more common than I was hoping.

For my 845 flight, the receptionist told me the shuttle would leave for the airport at 630 and I could get breakfast beforehand at 6. To make matters worse, I didn't have an alarm with me, and there was no phone or alarm clock in the room, but they said they'd come knock on the door and wake me up at 545. 

The wake up "call" occurred at more like 555 (I failed to adjust for "Fiji time" when I provided the wake up time). After packing up, I got to the reception area around 615 and was told that was plenty of time for breakfast. The shuttle finally showed up at 645 and we left. Along the way, there were police everywhere and lots of traffic cones set up blocking certain streets. According to the shuttle driver, the Russian Foreign Minister was visiting Fiji today, so there might be some issues with roads blocked (a fact no one bothered mentioning or seemed worried about when they said the shuttle would leave at 630). When we got to the road leading to the airport, it was blocked. The police officer who was monitoring it said it would be opened back up in "5 minutes." At this point, it was already after 7. By the time the road was opened it was about 720, so I got to the airport about 725. I figured that was still probably fine, given the size of the airport.

When I got to the check-in counter, I was informed that Air Pacific had to switch to a smaller airplane for my flight and so they no longer had enough seats for everyone that was booked, and the available seats on the new plane went on a first-come-first-served basis. She directed me to the customer service counter and said they'd book me on a later flight. I was never given an explanation for why there was a switch to a smaller plane. At the customer service counter, they said there was actually 2 seats left, so I could still get on my flight. Sweet! Then they asked me when I was leaving New Zealand. At that point, I had yet to book a flight leaving NZ because I wanted to maintain maximum flexibility. Turns out, NZ doesn't really allow that and I couldn't get on a plane (or check-in to a flight) to NZ without proof of a flight out of NZ. So then I started to sweat a little bit, because it was about 735. They point me towards where there is wifi, so that I could book my flight.

I made a mad dash for that area and pulled out the iPad and went to the Jetstar website (Australia's cheap airline) knowing they fly from Chistchurch, where I was planning to end my New Zealand trip, to Melbourne, where I was planning to start my Australia trip. Luckily, for the first time in Fiji, I actually had fast internet. The Jetstar interface was pretty user friendly, and showed the lowest price flight between those cities for each day in a 15-20 day stretch. I quickly chose March 2, which was a few days after when I initially thought I'd be leaving NZ, but I went with that because I wanted to have plenty of time in NZ and because it was cheaper than several of the days before it. About 7 minutes after I had left, I ran back to the Air Pacific counter, with the confirmation on my iPad. When I got there, and they told me that there were no longer any seats, and they'd put me on the standby list for an Air New Zealand flight that left a few hours later, but if I couldn't get on that flight, I'd have to wait for the Air Pacific flight at 2pm. So then I got to sit around anxiously and wait to see if I'd get on the ANZ flight, which I didn't think I would, but ultimately was able to get on at the last minute

I did finally make it to Auckland though and got checked into the YHA hostel close to the city center ($17 US/night), which was really nice, except the internet was super slow, despite having to pay for it. So again, I wasn't able to get photos uploaded. The highlight of the day was a trip to the supermarket, and after 10 days in a developing country, a real, full-size supermarket is a pretty exciting place to be. I had my first bowl of cereal in about 10 days, which is probably the longest I've gone without cereal in about a decade. An actual washer and dryer were also pretty exciting to see.

Sorry about the long-winded rant, I'll try to keep those to a minimum going forward. No pics from Day 11.

Day 12 - Friday, February 3

With my bus tour through New Zealand starting the next day, I used Friday to see a little bit of Auckland.  Auckland's not really considered one of the highlights of New Zealand, but it is the biggest city. As I had done in several places along my cross-country trip in the fall, I decided to do a jogging self-guided tour through the city, and get some exercise while I saw the sites.

I made it to the museum, and decided to pay the entry fee and check it out, because it was on a lot of the lists I had seen of top spots in Auckland. I once again confirmed that I'm not much of a museum person, but there was a lot of cool stuff in there.  I kind of like this pic that I snapped on the jog up to the museum: 

From New Zealand - Auckland, Bay of Islands, and Cape Reinga

I then made my way to Mt. Eden, which is an old volcano very close to the city, with panoramic views of the city at the top. Unfortunately it was a little cloudy, but I took some pics anyway and now I will force one such mediocre picture of the Auckland skyline on you:

From New Zealand - Auckland, Bay of Islands, and Cape Reinga

Went to bed early, because the Kiwi Experience bus was coming the next morning at 7 to pick me up and take me and a bunch of other people north to the Bay of Islands and Cape Reinga. For those curious, I chose the "Zephyr" track - so you can checkout my itinerary for the next month here. If you look at their site, note that virtually all of the Kiwi passes can be purchased for nearly half of the "standard" price, through Kiwi's own specials or by booking through a hostel/travel agent/etc. For example, the pass I purchased has a standard price of $975 NZD, but I paid $579 NZD (about $475 US).

A few other pics from Auckland are available for your viewing pleasure in the photo album you can get to by clicking on the link below either of the pics above.