Sun, Sails and Skin

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While I did indeed make it over to Waiheke Island today in one piece and have settled in with a friendly family here on the island, my last day in Auckland was relatively eventful. It started normally for me, waking up, showering, having breakfast – I’ve been eating through my bread and a 1kg tub of Peanut Butter – and then heading out for the day. I hit the Auckland Central Library first to check email and the like, and from there I decided I would do something for my last day – do a harbour tour. While my hip is healing it’s still not 100%, so I figured a tour by boat would be a good way to spend a day, and wasn’t too expensive. It had the added bonus of giving me a free return ticket to Devonport, an small town on the opposite shore that has a nice boardwalk. So I bought my ticket for 130pm and off I went.

I didn’t make it far from the Library (Queen Street – the main street downtown) before I noticed a very large crowd of people lining the streets. Not knowing what they were waiting for, naturally I stop and wait with them. A few minutes later, it was a parade coming down the hill. Not a typical parade, but a topless parade, I kid you not. Promoting the Erotica Expo or something going on this or next weekend, I’m not quite sure. Quite unexpected, and there was something for men and women alike in the crowd. Either way, no pictures to be posted here, sorry. 😛

After the parade passed I made my way down to the harbour area and stocked up on chocolate. I grabbed something called a Cadbury Moro. It’s description was Chocolate, Caramel and Nougat – they really should have called it a ‘Mars’ bar, but that name is already taken…

Mars?

It is interesting reading about the Moro, as Mars bars do indeed exist here as well – the Moro is largely a Kiwi favourite, and sells more than any other Cadbury chocolate here. Not surprisingly, it also outsells the Mars bar. Still, tasty.

On the boat, it was a beautiful day so as we left the harbour area I took some shots.

The tour itself was a bit lackluster – I couldn’t hear half of what was being said and I think it was a recording anyways – somewhat bland. But, it was enjoyable sitting on the top deck of the boat (if a wee bit chilly with the wind), and enjoying the scenery. We eventually made it to our one brief stopping spot – Rangitoto Island.

An ancient volcano (as are most hills in this area), Rangitoto’s main attraction is the hour long hike to the peak – I wasn’t in any condition to attempt that, and the tour I was on only stopped for 10 minutes, so no such attempt was made by myself. Another time perhaps. On a clear day it supposedly gives great views of Auckland and the other surrounding islands (there are many!).

Our little boat made our way around a few other spots in the sizable harbour before passing under the large Harbour bridge, the main link from Auckland to the North Shore.

Once back on shore, I quickly hopped onto a nearby ferry to get me over to Devonport. There, I took about an hour walking around the downtown and surrounding neighbourhood. It was suitably quaint and peaceful.

After that, exhausted from my much busier day than normal, I headed back to my hostel for dinner with my roommate Peter and a couple others from the hostel, before packing my stuff and falling asleep for the last time (for now) in Auckland City!

Where is Waiheke?

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Today is my last full day in Auckland. I’ll hopefully get out and wander a bit more around the downtown today as my hip is slowly healing, and take a few nice pictures to put up here, but for now I’m content eating, reading and relaxing. It’s been a slower start here than I would have preferred or normally experienced when travelling – my injury has really slowed me down to a frustrating crawl. Still, I had set these days in Auckland aside in order to get everything set up that I needed to, and I think I succeeded. I’m ready to move on.

So my first destination won’t be too far away, it’s a place called Waiheke Island (I think it’s pronounced Wa-HEEK-ee). It’s actually only about 30km from Auckland – but it’s by ferry to get there. I’m not sure how long I’ll be on the island – probably a week, but we’ll see how it goes. Specifically, the WWOOFing experience I have set up. I’m going to be staying with my first host family! I don’t honestly know a ton about them, but I don’t believe it’s large scale farming they do, more small homestead style work. But, I’ll see when I get there tomorrow! Either way, I’m excited to be doing something ‘productive’ soon once again.

I’ve heard nothing but good things about Waiheke from those at the hostel that have been – they describe it as peaceful, quiet, friendly and relaxing. That, and a winelover’s haven apparently. I guess I’ll have to start liking wine?

Plus I get to take a ferry ride tomorrow. Yay ferries!

Penny for your thoughts?

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No longer has any meaning here in New Zealand – they have completely scrapped the 1 cent coin. Actually, they’ve gone one step further and gotten rid of the 5 cent coin as well. I didn’t actually realize it until a few days in, when looking through my change and thinking…where are all the useless coins? Everything is useful:

You can probably make them all out, but from left to right it goes 10c, 20c, 50c, $1, $2. So somewhat similar to Canadian/US denominations, but with the elimination of 1c and 5c parts it simplifies things considerably. Back in Canada I came to loathe change – Anything less than 25c, and I’d simply take it home and toss it in a box. After 4 years, I collected the change in that box, rolled it, and took it to the bank – I had ~$80 of change sitting there.

Part of this simplification is handled by the tax system – New Zealand has a GST very similar to Canada’s GST/PST/HST – 15%, but instead of adding the tax to the displayed price, ALL of New Zealand’s prices already have the taxes included. It’s such an elegant and simple system, and you always know what you are going to pay when you buy something. No more mental math required to find out if buying something that costs $90 will require you to break out $100, or $120 to pay. All in all, it’s wonderful!

I’ve also come to enjoy another simplicity of New Zealand monetary culture – tipping. Tipping here? Non-existent. Wait staff are paid full wages, unlike North America, so tipping is not expected nor common at all (the two places that I’ve paid by Credit, you aren’t even given the option). And since the value of the meal often is a nice round monetary number, walking out after putting a $10 bill down on the table for a $10 meal is as simple as can be. I rather quite like this kind of sophistication! 🙂

Treats

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In celebration of getting a new (very) old car, I treated myself to some sushi this evening. Not the usual sushi you find here – the to go variety, but I actually sat down and ordered some freshly made, to order stuff. In other words, the good stuff. I didn’t splurge that much though – I had a handy voucher from a website called Grabone – very similar to Groupon and the like in North America. So for $15 on Grabone, I get a $35 gift voucher at this sushi place (which was, as it turns out, about 4 blocks from my hostel). Not to shabby!

So I splurged by spending $15 (dinner would normally be $8-10NZD for me or so), but ate darned well. From the $35, I got 16 big fat pieces of assorted Sashimi (6 salmon, 5/5 of two different tunas), and the biggest Dragon Roll I think I’ve ever had:

Oh so good. I couldn’t even get a full piece in my mouth (they were 2-bite sized), but I tried, indeed I tried. I’m going to sleep well tonight.

Cars are fun

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Being able to drive again, I quickly remember how much I miss having a set of wheels. All of a sudden I’m no longer restricted to bus schedules and routes (though Auckland’s bus system has been good to me), I have the freedom to go wherever I want whenever. Not that I have grand plans right now, I’m still in Auckland until the 4th, after which I am going to head over to one of the nearby islands for a week of work. That’s right, I found work on a small farm on Waiheke Island! I’ll be joining a family of 3 and help them weed, trim, and various other farming like activities (pick rocks?).

I found another very inexpensive part of Kiwi life – car insurance. It’s interesting, unlike most (nearly all?) developed countries – car insurance isn’t required here. Still a sensible investment though, in the event you do decide to pile into someone. But with the numerous low cost imports on the road, most people only opt for 3rd party insurance. This means prices on it are incredibly low – It will cost me $128NZ (so barely $100CAD) for a full year of 3rd party collision insurance. Going up to full comprehensive still isn’t too bad – $800NZD/year for me, but not much sense given my car is only worth $2000NZD. I’ll just avoid getting into an accident in the meantime.

Which so far, hasn’t been too bad! I’m adjusting to driving on the left, signalling with my right hand instead of left (I’ve still operated the wipers, which is now on the left, erroneously a few times), and learning to beware of Kiwis general lack of ability to signal pretty well so far. There has just been one daunting task so far – the roundabouts.

Now, I’m not entirely unfamiliar with roundabouts. Sarnia had one afterall, though the amount of traffic on it is nearly non-existent. That didn’t stop me from going round and round on it once or twice for amusement. Here, roundabouts are fairly common, especially getting onto and off of the freeway. This means fast moving traffic. This means terror to someone learning to simply drive on the correct side of the road. Because of course, the roundabout operates in the opposite direction as in Canada. There aren’t any new or odd rules (that I’ve been able to figure out), but the quantity of cars and the speed they are moving entering and exiting mean that things are quite a bit more daunting. Here is a typical example (completely to scale by the way and 100% accurate).

 

I’ve only been stuck going round the merry-go-round once so far. For the next few days though, the car will likely remain parked as I finish up my time here in Auckland and try and get my leg healed up (ie I’m not going to be doing much the next few days – lounging around mostly!).

Wheels!

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So I once again have a set of 4 wheels and several tons of steel at my disposal.

Not going to win any beauty contests, but I don’t think I did too badly! It’s a 1996 Honda Accord Station wagon. I originally was thinking about getting a normal, small sedan, but after talking to a few people at the hostel, decided to move up to station wagon. The reason being is that sleeping in your wagon is a great way to save money in the summer – and there are some really awesome places to do just that in the south island. Nothing like waking up to the beach outside your car or something similar. Since the costs were pretty much identical (though gas will likely be slightly more), the savings I can make by sleeping in here instead of a hostel are pretty substantial. And it’s not a bad looking car for the money either – $2000NZD got me a Honda with 185,000km.

The interesting thing about the kilometers though – they can’t always be trusted here. The vast majority of cars in NZ are imported, used, from Japan. Apparently it’s pretty normal for the odometer to come looking…a little too good. I got my car at the Ellerslie Car Fair, a MASSIVE market of private sale cars put on every Sunday. There were probably 500+ cars there today, ranging from ~1000NZD to near new cars. The majority were under $5K though. And it was interesting the range. Seeing 1995 cars with under 100,000km is highly, highly suspect, given they might only be asking $4000 for it. Pretty much if it was too good to be true, avoid. I got mine a thorough inspection before, and while the car isn’t perfect (passenger door kinda squeaky with the lock, brakes need replacement soon), it was in pretty good overall shape. Hence, I took it! I hope that it lasts the year, and sees me around both islands. It drives smoothly without funny noises. Plus, has quite a few nice little amenities, like automatic climate control, power windows and locks and a tape deck!

By the way, I totally rocked the parallel parking on the backward streets here, on my first attempt and everything.

Tempting!

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But I didn’t succumb to my curiosity to find out what exactly Fried & Spicy Chicken Beer might be. My loss. I know where to find it if the craving ever sets in. There is one thing I have been known to have an insatiable appetite for though:

The fact that they charged *$1.20NZD* (roughly $1CAD) for a single scoop and under $2NZD for 2 scoops of glorious ice cream was beyond awesome. I was in heaven. Now, I know what you are probably thinking, but I’m not entirely obsessed with ice cream – I did not specifically seek this wonderful building out, I simply happened upon it. Honest! I was actually in the North Shore area of Auckland looking at a car just up the road of the heavenly spot of ice cream deliverance. The car turned out to be pretty decent – a 1993 Mitsubishi Galant, ran well, and was in pretty good condition, for around $2000NZD. I’ve put in a bid for it, I’ll find out Sunday if I get it. The only problem with it is the exterior colour – it’s purple. Blech. But, if it gets me from Point A to B and is reliable, I’ll be happy as can be. Much like I was eating ice cream (got ‘Hokey Pokey’) in winter time.

Japanese Pancake

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Having never had one of these confectionery items, I was naturally curious to see what it was when I saw one advertised near the central Library. It seemed like a popular place, and at $4NZD, was darn cheap for dinner. After ordering a ‘beef and cheese’ pancake (this should have been my first warning – beef and cheese?), I watch as the workers began preparing my food. After dousing a frying pan with oil, my blobby pancake is tossed into the pan and flattened. It actually looked quite appetizing! I was hungry, so that probably helped. After 5 minutes of cooking, the area smelled great and I received my mysterious food. It looked fairly close to a normal pancake. It was scorching hot when I got it and was simply presented in a couple of napkins, so I started wandering towards my bus stop. Eventually it had cooled enough for me to sample. Crunchy outside, fluffy inside! Pretty tasty. Like a giant pancake really. A few more bites and I was enjoying myself.

And then I hit the ‘beef’. I really don’t think it was beef. It certainly didn’t taste like any beef I’ve had before. I assumed that the first bite of meat was simply one of those odd flavour pockets, the next wouldn’t be too bad….nope. Taste got worse. I think they actually dared to put onions in there as well. THE HORROR. I proceeded to eat the outside edges of the pancake, tossed the middle section in the garbage and went to sleep hungry. Lesson learned. My cereal this morning tasted extra special and non-mysterious.

But I did also manage to get a nice nighttime picture of the Skytower from the University of Auckland (nice place!).

 

Oh, and I plan to jump off said tower (with a harness, don`t worry!) before I leave Auckland. It`s only the tallest freestanding structure in the Southern Hemisphere after all, so why not? When in New Zealand…:)