I am in the infamous Bay of Islands. Its official, I made it to one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Now that I've looked around, what is there to actually DO? Piri took a picture of me "with scenery" so now that thats done I've got to find something to occupy my time without spending thousands of dollars. Paihia is a very touristy town, very cute with great views across the bay at some islands and another town called Russell. I'll be here for a week and am going to become very familiar with its downtown, aka one street with stores all containing 'original New Zealand souveniors". I've been told I was given a great NZ souvenior in Australia already. While Piri was helping me sort through my coins I showed him a 50p coin that nobody would take. He called it antique. I call it someone owing me 50p.
I landed in Auckland on the 26th after a very rough night. Well, the night was fine, the morning was rough. As it was my last night I went to Beach Road in the afternoon with Craig and we played pool and had some beer and met some people. Then we walked back to the hostel which took us right by the liquor store so it only seemed logical to go in and get some liquor. I steered clear of the wine (have I finally learned my lesson?) and we got boxed Smirnoff vodka cranberry mix. It tasted like cranberry juice. So it was good, but very misleading, just because it doesn't taste strong, doesn't mean it isn't. Australia is very cautious about overconsumption of things and addiction, they have signs posted everywhere about how smoking kills and gambling is addictive and when is one drink too many?--When your lying in the road by yourself is what the ad seems to be telling me. So the box had a suggested serving size of 10 and informed us that we had a serious problem if the box did not contain 10 servings for us personally. The box was good for 5 servings. We were able to pour 3 mugs worth and then refill 2 of them. Unproportional serving size is universal apparently.
Awake at 4:37 was a stroke of luck considering I needed to be leaving for my flight at 5. Good thing I had haphazardly packed the night before and only have the one backpack during my journey (I still long for my entire closet every morning when I put on that one dress, AGAIN). Slept on the plane and arrived in a time zone even closer to home! Now I am only 3 hours behind but a day ahead of you all! Well, 4 hours behind for those of you in Colorado, but you get the drift.
In the hostel I met these really nice girls in my 8 bed dorm and the 4 of us went out that night. I was extremely tired but trying to be friendly so we took a cab to Pondersby st. (or something) and went to Social Club. It was an alley. Like, there were 2 stores, with a space between them that a bouncer put a rope up and checked our ID's to go into an alley. There was a bar ($7 a beer! what a rip....) and a DJ (he looked about 12, and seemed just as experienced) so we drank and we danced and it was fun. But good god I was tired and by the time it 2 everyone was still drinking and dancing and I was falling asleep. Finally the lights came up about 2:45 and we jumped in a cab straight to McDonalds on Queen ST. which I learned the next day is the busiest street in all of New Zealand. One quarter pounder and medium fries later I was ready to hit the sack and walked as fast I could, leading the pack, back to our hostel where I promptly got into bed and fell asleep until 10:45 the next day.
At noon I was supposed to meet a guy named Ben. He is British, has lived in New Zealand for 4 years and thinks everything is Brilliant! Its not a stereotype if its true, it just is--all Brits think everyday mundane things are brilliant, such as my flight being ontime, and drink tea. He picked me up and showed me around Auckland. I'm really grateful I met him and he was so nice because I saw so much more of the city than I ever would have if I hadn't. If he didn't show up that day my plan was to finish the candy bar I just bought, take a nap and maybe get on the internet. You can tell New Zealand will do wonders for my health.....
So we went to Mt. Eden, got lunch at Circus Circus, a breakfast place that looks like the hotel in Vegas, went across the Auckland Bridge ( he highly recommends doing the bungee jump, as does Piri so Ithink I may have to) and went to a beach. Beach Minnehaha. And it was Mini. About 20ft wide of sand and heaps of black rocks to either side that you can jump off of. Then we went into Davenport and could look across the bay at Auckland. He was really sweet and took pictures of me with random things and backgrounds. He dropped me off at the hostel where I then Skyped with Aaron and then slept for about 5 hours. It was glorious.
The next day, which is today!, I got up at 7am and went to Subway. Not just for fun....I bought a footlong in case I got hungry on the 4 hour ride from Auckland to Paihia. The bus, The Naked Bus, left at 8am and I slept and read and looked out for Frodo and Hobbits houses, with no luck, and arrived in Paihia to beautiful blue skies. A quick walk to the hostel and I managed to check in and get in touch with Piri within about 20 minutes.
The room I'm in is amazing. There are 8 beds and only 2 of us staying here, for tonight at least. I have a bottom bunk, first time this trip! and we have our own bathroom, kitchenette and table with multiple* chairs and a mini fridge.
Piri dropped off the jumpers from today at my hostel and then we walked down the street along the beach and decided to get some fish and chips and L&P--delicious! Its a soda that they make and sell only in New Zealand. Pretty selfish if you ask me (I'd love to buy it in the States! its like ginerger ale but better) We walked back and looked at the tourist information stuff because I need to decide what we should do on his day off....I need to figure out what to do when he is working in this tiny little town first though. Everything seems to require A. lots of money and B. friends to do it with. Neither of which I have. We already decided that Wednesday night, because Thursday is his day off, we will go to Russell where the oldest bar in all of New Zealand is. I mean, duh. What else would we do. But I'm thinking a 20dollar boat trip around the islands would be fun and maybe, just maybe, if the horses are as old and obedient as he says, I will get over my fear and get on one of those suckers so we can ride through a National Park or whatever.
I'm just excited to jump from 16000 ft. (Mainly because I'm not responsible for the landing on our tandem...but don't tell Piri that!)
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