So I've arrived safely in Auckland, after a very long flight. I've been here for four days now, and I have to say, I don't like Auckland very much. It's a very bland city. Over a third of all Kiwis live here, though, so there must be some appeal...Actually, the lady who helped me open a bank account said that more people live in Auckland than on the entire South Island! Anyway, I have one more day here, and then I'm headed elsewhere.
I supposed I should tell you what I've been up to. Monday, I got in, found the hostel, and wandered around for a while until my 10:00 orientation. That went pretty well. Then I had to set up my phone, apply for an IRD (tax) number, and open a bank account. It really took all day. Then I tried to find the grocery store, but got lost (and it gets dark here at 5-6:00, so I was wandering around a strange city by myself in the dark...well, it can't be helped), so I just went to Burger King and then read for a little before going to bed.
Tuesday, I began to look for a job. I emailed a bunch of hostels about work-for-accommodation arrangements, and sent out messages about a few paid jobs, as well. I got three responses! Two were work-for-accommodation (and they would have been pretty cool, I think, because they were in really cool locations), and then one to be a general labourer in Taupo, which is in the middle of the North Island. It's right on Lake Taupo (understandably), which is New Zealand's biggest lake. I have to work 10 hours a day, 6 days a week for 4 weeks, and accommodation will be $150/week, but at $12.50, I'll get $3000 ($2400 minus accommodation and not considering taxes, which I don't know about), so that's not too bad...And there are 15 other workers, who I would think are mostly young folks like me, which will be nice.
Tuesday night, I went to a quiz night at a pub with some other people from IEP. It was fun. It was really good to not be alone. One of the staff members told me that Taupo is a really great location and that it's a lot of fun, and also that the hostel at which I'll be staying is a good hostel (yeah. I'll be living in a hostel for 4 weeks. But it's at a discounted rate...). After I got back from that, I ended up talking to a guy from Florida who was flying to Australia the next day. His sister went to Madison, so he asked me if we really say "bubbler" in Wisconsin. I informed him that we do, indeed, use the word "bubbler." We also talked to an Irish guy who was also in the room. He had been living in Australia for 3 years, but his company needed to get rid of people due to the recession, so they told him to take 8 months off and that he'd still have his job when he got back.
Today, I went to the Auckland War Memorial Museum. There were dinosaurs. It was awesome. There was also a really interesting exhibit on volcanoes, and there were two rooms dedicated to decorative arts (my favorite!). Also, there's a shrine to Sir Edmund Hillary that contains his pick axe (gifted to the museum by Lady Hillary) and a short film. That's it. Anyway, I enjoyed the museum (even though parts of it were kind of silly), and it's easy to spend a lot of time in a museum by yourself and not feel weird about it... Then I started to plan out some travel stuff. I booked a tour with a bus company, Kiwi Experience, because they were having winter sales and you could get both their North and South island packages for NZ$600 (so, like, $400 or a little less). I thought that was a pretty good deal, and you get to do a lot of stuff with them. I thought I'd take a month starting at the end of October, when it's warmer but not too busy, and go on this tour. They say most people who go are people who are traveling alone, so that'll be good.
I've also made some plans for the next week. I'm going to Raglan for 4 days, which is on the west coast about 2 hours south of Auckland. Then, I'm heading to Rotorua (which is one of the big tourist spots...) for 3 nights, because it's pretty close to Taupo and I have time to kill. But the hostel I've just booked there has a hot spring in it. So I'm pretty excited.
The title of this post refers to the fact that New Zealanders, like the British, pronounce the letter "z" "zed", rather than "zee". I never got used to this when I was in England. I had a guy ask me, in March, after I'd been there for 6+ months, if I had an "A to Zed" of Norwich in my head (because I usually have a really good sense of direction), and I had no idea what he was talking about. Here, since people use "z" more often, I've already adjusted to it.
(Also, I am continually surprised by how little I am phased by people driving on the wrong side of the road. It's much harder to switch back!)
Sorry for such a long post. But now you're all caught up!
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