Exploring Auckland

We've spent the past couple days exploring Auckland and getting used to life in New Zealand. At first, Auckland seemed new and exciting. Since we have yet to really explore much more than the city center (or centre, as they'd spell it here), it really has turned into your average big city. There are lots of people, shops, Starbucks, the usual. In fact, you really wouldn't know you're in a different country with all the American influences around (the driving on the left thing might tip you off though). There is American television, news, movies, music, food and drink. With regards to the food, everything is a bit different than back home. Rice Krispies are Rice Bubbles, and even though Froot Loops are still Froot Loops, they are a little bigger than normal and taste just a little different. Believe it or not, but Steph has yet to have Starbucks yet, so we'll see if that's any different soon. (We've been using a different coffee shop that has free internet - don't think she's ditched coffee altogether). Despite the abundance of produce that comes from New Zealand, the orange juice is terrible. I couldn't find any without pulp either - blast. Not only that, but the food is expensive here. Powerade bottles - maybe a little more than 20 oz (haven't quite figured out the mL conversion yet) - are like $4.50 (~$3 US). Skittles are $2 ($1.30 US) at the internet cafe I'm at. (Don't you like how my "food" examples are Powerade and Skittles? They're just examples, people). There wasn't a whole lot of choice either, at least not at the grocery store we went to. There was only about a quarter of an aisle of cereal choices, compared to a solid three-quarters back home. For shame. Maybe when we get out in more rural areas or visit different grocery stores it'll be different. We will see.

Back to Auckland. Like I said before, we have successfully opened our bank account here, so we've mostly converted to New Zealand dollars. I say mostly because we only have an debit card, which you can't run as credit over here, so we can't use it online. For now all our online bookings (plane tickets, hotel rooms, etc.) will have to be in good ol' US dollars, which seem to be tanking at the moment, but that's for a whole other blog. Currently we are debating what kind of cell phone plan to get. Let me tell you, this is no easy decision. Evaluating cell phone plans here is like going back 10 years in the States. I guess they don't talk on the phone much, because most plans only include like 30-50 minutes per month. Of course, they are only about $30 ($20 US) per month. We have no idea how much we'll be using our phones, so we may go the prepaid route. It's not really that big of a deal, but we're having a tough time making the decision. Gonna put if off for a few days. Oh, and we have to buy our phones too. Adds to the dilemma.

Today we switched to tourist mode and explored the city a bit. This morning we checked out a couple weekly markets they have around the city - bought some fruit (NZ Jazz apples are my new favorite - they have them at Whole Foods in the US), crepes from the "French-style" market, and sampled some of the often strange concoctions people had cooked up. It seems there are a lot of different ethnicities here in the city - there are a LOT of asians, plus a lot of Kebab stands, and seemingly a lot of Turkish food. It's a melting pot, if you will. Afterwards we went to the Auckland Domain, which is a huge park in the middle of city which also is the site of the Auckland Museum. We wanted to visit the museum to learn more about New Zealand and its past - especially the native Maori people. If you're playing along at home, I believe it's pronounced "Maudree" - "mau" rhymes with "now". Don't hold me to that. Anyways, we saw some really cool artifacts from the Maori and other Polynesian peoples as well as learned about the natural and cultural history of New Zealand. It was really cool, and since a couple hours in any museum is getting a bit much, at least we were smack in the middle of a big park. We took a little break afterwards and sat on a big green hill (eating our NZ Jazz apples) and watched a cricket game. For the life of me I can't figure out that game. It's a strange one. Speaking of games that I don't understand, there is a HUGE rugby game tonight - between the New Zealand All Blacks and the Australian Wallabies. You can imagine this is a big deal around here, and it's all you hear about on the news. Steph and I are hoping to catch the game at one of the many pubs around here, where hopefully someone can explain to us what is going on. Anyways...GO ALL BLACKS!

The plan from here is to spend two more days in Auckland before flying down to Christchurch in the South Island. The idea there is that it will be a good place to buy a cheap car and hopefully a lot easier place to learn to drive it. There are too many strange turning lanes and rules around here to add to the confusion of driving on the left side. Then we'll do a mini-tour of the South Island before heading to Queenstown, where we plan to settle down and get jobs. In the meantime, we'll explore Auckland a bit more. It's a pretty big city with lots of options for day trips, so we'll do a bit of research and find something fun to do, at least before we go off and get lame part-time jobs in some beautiful mountainside resort town...it's horrible I know. We'll get by.

Sky Tower at dusk from our balcony

Maori statues

Cricket game in Auckland Domain