Thoughts, Rants and Subliminal Suggestions

The New Zealand Saga

The flight to New Zealand from Darwin was not all that bad although I freaked a guy outby talking in my sleep. I was tired. My first view of New Zealand was awesome, I already want to go back. I got out of hte airport, said farewell to Matt, then caught the bus to the hostel. The bus driver was nice, he gave me an extra discount for my roundtrip ticket. I checked in, put my luggage in the room and met two of my roommates. They are older women travelling around the world. I went downstairs to book a day trip only to find the booking agent closed. Luckily the front desk helped me out. I decided on what seemed to be a good day tour, getting out of the city, and went to pay for it only to have my card denied. I was a bit upset. I have the money! I found out later that a heat wave in Connecticut shut down the bank's computers and that's why the money couldn't be accessed.
Since I couldn't do anything about it, 1 am east coast time in the US, I wandered out into the city for food and an evening of entertainment. I saw Madagascar, which made me chuckle because they made fun of Connecticut, no one else got it. I browsed Borders for a while and then called home. Mom and Dad said they'd put more money in the account, I planned to go to a bank to sort my money woes out.
To top it all off, I'm having an allergic reaction to something. My legs are covered in hives and they itch like nobodies business. Ick.
One thing I can say about New Zealand is that I finally feel like I'm in the southern hemisphere. boy is it cold! I can see my breath!
The hostel's beds are comfy and I love sleep. In the morning I woke up and was finally able to pay for my day trip. Since it was a while before I was to be picked up I went back to bed. Mmmmmm.
The tour is interesting. I was the first person to be picked up so I was all alone sitting in a huge coach. We drove around the city and a bunch of landmarks were pointed out. We also stopped at Mt. Eden, which is one of several exctinct volcano cones in the Auckland area. I walked around the rim. The next stop was the Auckland War Memorial Museum. The first floor had a nice display of Maori history. The second floor had an interesting natural history exhibit. It made me wish I had been able to go diving at Poor Knight's. The bus also drove through some of the residential areas of the city. We even saw the most expensive street. Man, thsoe houses were awesome! On the way back for lunch we saw a brilliant rainbow.
I transferred onto my Bush and Beach part of the trip. The one I was really looking forward to. There were only 8 people including me, plus a tour guide - nice and small. We saw a bunch of places, close to Auckland, on the western coast in the Waitakere regional park. We also stopped at Karekare and Piha. There was even a rainforest! But it was cold! I loved it. We also stopped at at a visitor's center to learn about the Maori carvings. All the carvings outside of a traditional meeting house are male and they have erect penises and tattoos. The erection signifieds the strength and readiness of the men protecting their family. Pretty cool. The swirly tattoos all over their bodies are a symbol of life and vitality. It mimics the swirling of a new tree fern bud, which we also saw.
Another stop was at Piha Beach. The black sand (some of which I pilfered and got home) is magnetic and comes from the volcanic activity in the area. Apparently there is also titanium and other valuable metals and elements in the sand. Those elements are mined elsewhere in the country. We saw a gorgeous waterfall whose only upstream source is rain. The waterfall was near the beach where "The Piano" was filmed. I must watch it now.
Our guide also took us to his house where we had tea or coffee and cookies. I gratefully accepted the coffee, I was passing out in the tour van. We made a last scenic stop which was well worth the cold and wind before heading back to the main city. Apparently Auckland is larger than London square-mile wise but only has 1.5 million people. It is also the largest city population wise in the country. The country has a total of 4 million people, a number they reached only recently.
I was dropped off back at the hostel and made myself dinner of creamy chicken and veggie soup. I curled up on a couch in the lounge and read and finished a book I found in the book swap. I also planned my activities for tomorrow since they recquire detailed planning so I get to the airport and catch my flight back to Los Angeles. I 've also determined that I hate itching and that my continuous massive breakout is due to something in my clothes. Luckily I have antihistamine medicine leftover from my spider bite a year ago and brought it along. If I itch on the plane I don't think I'll mind since the meds kock me unconscious. yay, sleep aids! off to bed, I'll be up early.
I caught the free shuttle to Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World, paid for admission and entered. The aquarium was dedicated to the Antarctic explorers who raced to reach the south pole. They had a nice penguin display but my favorite was the stingray pool. They had several huge stingrays that were quite friendly but you couldn't touch them grrrr The feeding time was cool. A guy got into the tank with them. The stingrays came up to him and patted him on the head with their wings while he fed them. I was so jealous, I want his job! Well, maybe not, but I want friendly sting rays to do that to me. They also had some small sharks and fish that you viewed from underneath just like at nearly every aquarium now. Kind of boring. The only unique thing was that the entire aquarium was underground in old sewer pipes of the city. I did manage to waste time like I wanted and I met a nice Indian girl. We exchanged emails and I told her i'd send pictures from the aquarium.
I slowly traveled back to the hostel, where my luggage was stored and waited fro the airport shuttle to pick me up. At the airport I met a nice guy named Jory who has a Ph.D in Immunology. He and I talked for a while and he gave me the names of a couple people i could contact about my interest in Astrobiology. That's totally awesome! Boarding the plane starts in 1 1/4 hours. Ugh.
One memory I do not want to forget that I neglected to mention earlier about the Bush and Beach trip. New Zealand smelled like New Hampshire. The air was so pure at the rainforest. I loved it!

posted by Amy M @ 10:55 PM