A team of athletes from India was on the flight. I’ve never seen such a group of tall men. Each one must have been close to 7 feet tall. They weren’t hard on the eyes either. The only unfortunate thing was that their coaches were heavy smokers and kept sneaking in the bathrooms for illicit ciggies. The best word to describe the reaction of the stewardesses is “vexed”.
We arrived at Auckland International Airport at 11pm local time. It took more than an hour to clear customs and collect our luggage. We also had to go through some extra screening because we were bringing smoked salmon into the country. New Zealand has very strict rules about bringing produce and meats into the country. They even wanted to know if people were entering the country with camping equipment, such as tents, that had been exposed to foreign soils and flora. They decided to let us and our salmon into the country, but not before one of the agents asked sarcastically “What is it with Canadians and salmon?”
Once outside of the airport it was relatively easy to find the airport shuttle. It cost $30 for the trip into Auckland, which went very quickly. The only downside was that there are two YHA hostels in Auckland, and I told the driver to drop us at the wrong one. It was a steep climb up to the other hostel so we asked for the night clerk to call us a cab. The cabbie reluctantly drove us the 1.5 blocks straight uphill to the other hostel.
As the cabbie pulled up outside of the hostel I noticed a very young Asian woman wearing a very risque white tube top and what looked like white vinyl hot pants. I asked the cabbie “Is she selling her wares?” and he laughed. Sure enough, our room at the hostel was on the first floor immediately above “kiddie stroll”. We spent the next two hours trying not to listen to the business dealings on the street below. The one good thing was that two of the girls were working together; one would go out on a job while the other waited for her to come back, then vice versa.
The other highlight of the evening (or morning) was that I wanted to charge my laptop so I could do some marking this morning. I plugged the universal adaptor into the wall socket then plugged my surge protector into the adaptor and turned on the socket. Sparks shot out two inches from the surge protector. I turned off the socket, checked the settings on the universal adaptor, and tried again. Same result. I totally fried adaptor and surge protector. At least the laptop wasn’t plugged in!!! I was too tired to worry overmuch and left the issue until this morning.
The first order of business this morning, aside from coffee, was to change rooms. The staff were quite accommodating. Our new room has twin beds instead of a double, too, which is an added bonus. The second order of business was to find another univeral adaptor and surge protector for my laptop.
The staff recommended a place called Dick Smith’s on Karangahape Road. It wasn’t too far and the salesman Eddie knew what I needed but asked if I could bring in my laptop just to make sure the adaptor and surge protector would work. I thought that was a good idea and said I’d be back in the late afternoon.
From there, Mom and I walked down Queen Street to Auckland Harbour. We stopped at the Fullers information center to ask about a harbour tour and the ferry to Waiheke Island. We booked tickets for the 1:30pm harbour tour, despite that fact that it was blowing a gale.
The ferry building at the end of Queen Street:
We had about an hour before the harbour tour so we walked down to the information center at Princes Wharf. We found some great maps, bought a FlexiPass (a discount pass for bus travel around New Zealand), and booked our bus trip from Auckland to New Plymouth for Friday.
We had a quick coffee then made our way to Dock 2B for the harbour tour. The Fullers ship was a big catamaran with indoor and outdoor seating. We chose to stay inside because of the wind and the dark clouds hanging over the harbour. The tour itself wasn’t amazing, but it was informative. It would probably be better on a sunny day when you can go out on deck and take endless pictures of the green sea and the city scape.
We got back to the dock at 3pm. We caught the free city bus to Wellesley and Queen Streets, then hiked up the Queen Street hill to City Street. I had to take a break because my legs were on fire. When I’d recovered sufficiently we climbed the City Street hill to Liverpool Street. We were absolutely knackered when we got to the hostel.
I collected my laptop and we walked back to Dick Smith’s and sure enough the adaptor and surge protector worked just fine. They were also quite affordable, costing approximately $30 in total.
By that time we were feeling peckish so we went across the street to the Thirsty Dog Pub. It was a local pub but we made ourselves at home. We had to wait 30 minutes until the cook arrived for his shift, but that was alright. We had a drink then ordered a Thirsty Dog Burger to share. Again, the burger was gigantic and easily fed the two of us.
As I was eating I was watching the traffic outside the pub and started to get really confused by the way drivers approached the intersection. In Canada, if a car wants to turn right and another car wants to the left onto the same road, the car turning left must yield to the car turning right. That didn’t seem to be the case. So, I approached a couple of guys and asked them to explain the rule to me. Sure enough, in New Zealand a car turning across traffic has the right of way. All others must yield.
After dinner we came back at the hostel. It’s still early so we’ll probably watch a movie on my laptop then head to bed. There is already a young Asian girl in revealing clothes stationed on the sidewalk outside of the hostel. Our new room overlooks the alley, and it is my sincere hope that the young ladies decide to service their customers in some other alley.
Tomorrow we will catch the ferry to Waikeke Island. We’ll rent a car for the day and drive around the island, go for some walks, lounge on the beach, and maybe visit a winery or two.
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