City of Sails

You know what sounds fun? Getting 4 hours of sleep, then waking up, putting on a heavy backpack, hauling ass for the train station, and then spending 12 glorious hours on a train. Okay, okay, sarcasm aside, the train wasn't all that bad. We left Wellington just a little after dawn and spent the day travelling through almost the entire North island. Once you get about an hour out of the city it's all farmland and millions of tiny green hills, and millions and millions of sheep for about 10 hours. The train seats were pretty uncomfortable and impossible to sleep in and there was no movie like on our trains but there was this cool tiny outdoor area where you could hang out. I didn't really check it out all that much until the second half of our journey because was just a tiny little space and it was really crowded at the beginning of the trip, but after we stopped for lunch in the national park I decided to go out and get some pictures (the windows inside cause too much of a reflection) and there was nobody out there so I hung out for a while. Riding outside rules, especially when the train is out in the middle of the country and starts to really pick up speed; I think it is the most fun I have had since we left Chch, if not earlier, I think I spent 2 to 3 hours of the trip out there. When I finally dragged Adam away from his book/napping to come out and take a look around he was like "I wish I had come out here earlier!", so if you are ever on the tranz-scenic overlander in New Zealand, definitely spend some time outside. Fresh air or no, we were getting totally antsy by the last hour, we were about ready to jump off by the time we pulled into the station in Auckland. Luckily our hostel was about 2 blocks from the station, so we grabbed our backpacks and headed for the sweet sweet promise of showers. 5 seconds out of the train station I ran into one of the mechanics from the VMF, and I had run into Amy (one of the health and safety people) in Wellington, so I guess they weren't exaggerating when they said you will run into ice people everywhere you go. Me and Adam checked into Base Backpackers, which is clean, has most of the stuff our last hostel did, and is basically in the center of the city...the only downside? Our room for the first night didn't have a window, and it is basically August weather here. I managed to get to sleep because I was so exhausted from the lack of sleep the night before, but I woke up around 3am and just couldn't deal with the stifling heat and had to wander the halls inbetween trying to go back to sleep just for some fresh air. So yeah, not the most fun first night in Auckland.

The next day we got to transfer to a room with a window, so I managed to get a nap in during the day between wandering around Queen St. and going to the movies. Queen St. is basically the mainstreet of Auckland, so most everything you need is right there. Me and Adam were excited to go to Borders Books because the bookstores in Wellington definitely left something to be desired and most of our time in New Zealand has been spent reading either in our hostel or in random cafes. However, for our first real night in Auckland we decided to mix things up a bit and actually get out for the night...we also decided we weren't going to worry about money and just have fun so we went to one of the resteraunts on Prince's Wharf and got some ostritch and some wine from Marlborough (New Zeland wine country). After that we wandered Queen St. for a while, which at the moment is lined with all these beautiful red lanterns that obviously aren't there all the time so we were kind of curious as to what was going on. We kept seeing people on the street with Chinese hats on carrying lanterns or big red umbrellas, which was really weird because it's not Chinese New Year...anyway, this led to a drunken quest on our part to get ourselves hats...yeah don't ask, you kind of had to be there. Unfortunately our search was neither thourough or successful so we soon got bored and irritated with the heat that is this Southern summer so we decided to go to Minus 5 Degrees, which is a bar on the wharf where everything inside is made completely of ice, the walls, the chairs, the glasses, all ice. The cover was fairly expensive but it was well worth it to get out of the heat and back in the cold. We were a bit peeved that they made us wear the coats and the glove liners and the gloves, because really, after Antarctica -5 degrees isn't all that cold. We tried to explain that but it didn't get us very far. And you can't even try to ditch the "parka" (it was totally not a parka) inside because the bartender won't serve you without one...I get that they are worried about people getting frostbite or some such but there is no way it was -5 degrees in there, you couldn't even see your breath. This all makes it sound like we didn't have fun, but it was definitely the best part of the night, there was all kinds of ice sculptures and ice benches (covered in deer hide so you didn't freeze your ass off), and the ice glasses were nice, and really all my skepticism about how cold the bar actually was just led to a fun debate with the bartender who was from Montreal and wanted to hear all about Antarctica anyway. But alas, you can only stay in the ice bar for about half an hour so we had to leave and go back out into the heat.

The next day, in a continuing effort to keep ourselves entertained and get out and about, we took the ferry to Devonport. It's a wee tiny ferry that only takes about 12 minutes and it was so nice to get out of the city. Devonport is a little suburb of Auckland and is home to 2 of Auckland's 48 extinct volcanoes. Since it's such a wonderfully small place (way more our speed than Aucland) we climbed them both. The first is Mt. Victoria, which erupted about 20,000 years ago, where you get a great 360 degree view. It's kind of weird with the old bunkers and these tiny metal mushrooms everywhere but it was nice to get some peace after being in Auckland Central with a gazillion people. The second volcanoe is North Head which is a lot more park-like than Mt. Victoria, there was a great view of the water and all the boats (Auckland is called the city of sails for a reason), and even more bunkers, and people parasailing (Adam was really jealous). Though I ended up sunburned and a little bug biten at the end of the excursion is was definitely a good way to spend the afternoon.

That night we went to the Auckland Lantern Festival...which explained all the red lanterns and hats and such. We had gone to Albert Park that morning and saw all of decorations and we thought we had missed it so we were really bummed out, but then we saw a poster for it while we were in Devonport that said it lasted all weekend. This somehow reopened our quest for hats...which was never actually was successful because everyone was sold out, which is probably for the best since I had no idea how I was going to get it home anyway. The park was packed, it was a good thing we had gotten a break from crowds earlier that day because otherwise I don't think I could have handled all the people. There was a big market, with food and lanterns, multiple different lantern displays strung up all around the park, and a mainstage show that was primarily all in Chinese. After the mainstage show was over there were fireworks and then the crowd poured out of the park...did I mention it was an insane amount of people? It was an insane amount of people. It was really cool idea for a festival, I think we should have on in Seattle...except the rain would probably ruin the lanterns. Anyway, Auckland has been pretty good but I am still kinda done with New Zealand.