Landing in Auckland was an amazing sight. I don't recall ever landing in such a beautiful place. It was all a bit surreal and disorienting to have finally arrived at my first destination: New Zealand.
The glittering water and green rolling hills looked so inviting. I tried to capture it in a photograph from the plane, but I don't think the picture does it justice.
On the bus to the center of Auckland, I was joined by at least 20 other (smelly) travelers from all points of the globe. (Yes, I too was a bit smelly after 15 hours on a plane and 15 hours of traveling before that.)
A lovely Finnish girl sat next to me on the bus and we were both surprised to notice that they drive on the wrong side of the road in New Zealand. (This is very disorienting, by the way. I have nearly been run over several times in the past few days because I'm looking the wrong way when I cross the street.)
After a day wandering in Auckland, a great city anyone would be lucky to live in, I have traveled to Rotorua. Geothermal steam is pouring out of the earth in this area and it makes the whole city smell of sulfur. But my hostel has a warm pool (29 degrees Celsius), and that's been a godsend, what with my aching legs and feet from walking everywhere.
Today I went to one of the Maori villages to see how they still live and use the geothermals to warm their homes, cook with and bath in. It was fascinating. I posted some pictures.
Here are my first impressions of NZ:
1. On the walk from the bus stop to my first hostel in Auckland, I couldn't help but notice the multitude of foreign food. Sushi, Indian, Chinese, Meditteranean Kabobs, fish and chips, and savory pies, and upscale pizza. There isn't a "New Zealand" cuisine that I've noticed yet. It's just a mix of all those things.
2. Despite speaking English, they seem to have difficulty understanding me and I have to repeat everything I say. :-)
3. Coffee is a high art here and places pride themselves on making great coffees. They use different versions of sizes too. Short and long black, white flat. They don't understand basic coffee with cream. I think they added water and milk to an espresso to get the approximate effect.
4. It's strange experiencing everything alone. I have thoughts and amazement and no one to tell it to. At first it was odd, but now it's rather meditative. I am enjoying just being alone with my own thoughts.
5. In Auckland, wandering around, I found a brilliant fast food chain called TANK. They have juices, smoothies and salads (which they serve to you in paper chinese to-go boxes) at reasonable prices - which turns out to be kind of important since food is rather expensive here. It's been tough trying to eat only $20 of food a day. That's my budget, but that's only about one meal. Anyway, they had excellent combinations at TANK and I was very impressed by the concept. I look forward to the day something like that comes to America - we need more real juice places.
6. New Zealand reminds me of so many places I'm having trouble determining what makes it unique. This place is just so incredibly beautiful and quaint and rugged and lush and mountainous. It is a land of tall trees and little houses. It looks like everywhere and nowhere at the same time. And so far I've only seen a teeny little bit.
7. And where are all the sheep? So far I've seen many more cows than sheep.
8. Serving breakfast all day is very popular.
9. So many tattoos everywhere. On all kinds of people, but especially on women of all ages strikes me as strange. The cultural connotation attached to tattoos must be very different here.
