November 17 - New Zealand: Auckland (North Island)
New Zealand is five hours ahead of Singapore, so our flight landed at 10:30 which is really 5:30 according to my body. *YAWN!*
The flight was OK except for the couple sitting directly behind us. For whatever reason, they decided not to sleep AT ALL and talked VERY LOUD the whole night. Well, maybe not the whole night. Because the man had to find time in between sentences to hawk loogies, belch, snort, and pick the hell out of his nose. Really, I wasn't aware that one could get his finger up quite that far.
Why does it seem that these horror stories happen to us only on the long, arduous flights? I mean, why couldn't they have sat behind us on during the 1.5 hour flight from DaNang to Singapore? That would have been tolerable - and maybe even amusing. But a 10 hour flight! Our nerves were raw, to say the least.
New Zealand Airport
But New Zealand airport made up for it. Right in the terminal was a sign that said "Complimentary Local Phone Calls." Complimentary? You gotta be kidding me. So we phoned some of the backpacker hotels listed in our "Let's Go New Zealand" book, and we were glad we did because most of them were full. This is the high season, and it's Saturday night so that makes it even more difficult. We finally got in touch with a hotel with vacancy - the Ponsonby Backpackers.
The man we spoke to said they had an airport pickup service and told us where to meet him in a half an hour outside the airport.
45 minutes later, we were still trying to clear customs. New Zealand isn't farting around with the Hoof and Mouth Disease thing. There are signs EVERYWHERE to declare food or hazardous materials, and a security guard walked a dog around the line several times to sniff out drugs, food, dirty laundry, etc. (Just kidding about the dirty laundry thing).
When we finally did get through customs, we went outside to meet our ride. Of course, I had no idea what we were looking for and the man I spoke to on the phone had only my name. So I left Jon with the bags and wandered around looking for someone who might be looking for me. When I walked back to Jon, he had found him.
Steven is from Yugoslavia and has lived in New Zealand for 8 years. He thinks we're crazy to try and do this country in only 2 weeks. He led us to an SUV parked nearby, and we put our stuff in an headed off. 20 minutes later, we arrived at the Ponsonby Backpackers house.
Ponsonby Backpackers
The guest house is a two-story blue and white house with about 10 rooms and two bathrooms. It's filled with friendly backpackers as well as publicity brochures, a bulletin board, and a "campsite" (read: side yard). Our room was on the second floor and was quite clean. That's good because we collapsed on the bed and slept for about an hour.
Quest for a Camper Van
Our friends Mark and Laura have inspired us. They finished New Zealand recently and did the whole thing in a campervan. It sounded like it was a blast, and takes care of both the accommodation and the transportation aspects of the trip. Jon settled in at the phone in the lobby to ring some of the companies. Everything was sold out. So bummed! We really wanted to do a campervan!! But we would have to settle for a regular old car instead. We're toying with the idea of buying a tent and camping the entire way. The weather is nice and cool (about 60°F) and this IS New Zealand - capital of all things outdoor. So we'll probably see what we can find in town tomorrow.
Car Rental
We had Steven (who is the sole owner and proprietor of this place, by the way) book us a car because he could get us the best price at a ridiculous $14US/day. A half hour later, the car was delivered by a really nice man named Garry who walked us through all the forms, processed our credit card, and gave us a tour of the car. It's a few year old Mazda Familia, probably '98 or '99, but it's very clean and in good condition and only has 43,000 kilometers. My only complaint is that the steering wheel is on the wrong side of the car. But so are all the steering wheels in this country. I'm going to have to get used to driving on the left side of the road. Especially since Jon can't drive until we fax the rental company a copy of his driver's license - which is currently sitting at my parent's house.
Dinner at Burger Fuel
We walked around Ponsonby, which is a trendy little area on the west side of Auckland. The restaurants remind me of some of the little contemporary cafes in New York, and we even found a place that serves Bagels with cream cheese and lox. YUMMY!
Jon and Auckland. Note the fleece. It's so nice to be in cooler weather for a change!
We went to a place called Burger Fuel that served crazy huge burgers prepared with odd toppings. I had a "Bacon Backburner" which was chicken breast with brie, bacon, and salsa. And it was so good! We sat at one of the little booths and listened to the techno music playing over the stereo system. Between the music and the blue lighting, we really felt like we were dining in a dance club.
Clean Clothes
After dinner, we walked around town and then went back to the hostel. Here, we gleefully attacked our laundry and took advantage of the hostel's washer and dryer.
Hello. WASHER AND DRYER!!!!
Our clothes haven't been machine washed or dried since we left New York on June 3. Most of the time we do our laundry when we shower. I'm not kidding. The countries we've been to don't have washers and dryers. And if they do, we never found them. So no way were we going to pass up this opportunity for machine-washed clothes!
We emptied out our backpacks all over the floor and separated them into piles for 3 loads of laundry. Technically, we didn't have 3 loads of dirty clothes. But - as Jon said - we redefined what we classified as "dirty". There were some t-shirts and shorts that were clean, but would definitely benefit from a hard scrub by a washing machine. This is so exciting!!!!!