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Published: February 11th 2008
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The SkyTower
The tallest structure in the southern hemisphere. Yesterday was a pretty cool day, and I got alot done. The meeting at the IEP offices was very informative, and helped to drastically change what my future plans are. The people there are people like us, who did the same thing, and now are part of a not for profit organization designed to help us have as easy and successful a time as possible. The helped us fill out our application for an IRD number, which is needed to work in NZ. They also told us where and how to get a bank account, and gave overviews of the working and living opportunities all around the country, as well as festivals, attractions, and other really cool things to do.
One of the most important things, they said, was to get out of Auckland. Fast. It's super expensive compared to the rest of the country, and it doesn't really offer as much as the other regions. After spending the day walking around and interacting with the people, I tend to agree. It is alot like the big cities in the states, with a huge, disgusting tourist industry that has created tourist shops all over. After only 24 hours in which
Buildings
I'm reading The Fountainhead, so I'm really into Architecture right now. I realized there are definitely more American fast food places in a 10 block radius of downtown than in the the entire city of Erie, I got disgusted. Subways, Burger Kings, and Starbucks are EVERYWHERE.
Once I got out of the meeting, I had to run a couple of errands. First, I stayed at the office and bought a telephone. It was relatively cheap for the country. In New Zealand, there are only two providers, Telecom and Vodaphone, and they run a quasi-monopoly that jacks up all the phone prices. It cost me $60(which is $75.50, American), and nearly all plans in the country are pre-paid. My phone number is 027 2121 359. The country code for NZ is 64. Feel free to call or text me whenever you want, because it's free for me. It might be expensive for you, but whatever.
After the phone, I headed over to the bank, where I ran into the other people who had the meeting with me. There was a French Canadian couple, a guy from boston, a girl from Canada, and a Dutch girl. It took a pretty long time to go through all of us, so I talked
a
a to them for a while, and found out the guy from Boston was leaving right after he opened an account and heading for Northland. The rest of them were going to be in Auckland for at least a couple days. I sort of wandered around the city for a bit and took a couple pictures after that, before getting lunch at a Subway, and going back to the hostel to watch a British football game.
I was out on the street a couple hours later running some errands (finding international postage stamps, which apparently are only sold at 1 place in a 4 mile radius) when I was stopped by a young man wearing a fake beard and a top hat who was accompanied by a woman with a camera. He asked if I wanted to be interviewed for a "kids telly program", and I agreed, so he started asking me all these questions for about 5 minutes. When I said Aucklanders sometimes give the cold shoulder, he said no way, and demanded I go around and make friends by hi 5ing people on the street, and the first girl I tried was a 5 year old Kiwi and
a
a she wouldn't return it.
Around 7, I walked down to the waterfront and went to the grocery store, which was an experience in itself. Nearly 1/3 of the store is dedicated to Eastern ethnic foods, and on top of that they spell yogurt "yoghurt". I spent about $25 on essentials.
On the walk back, I came across a little memorial in between the sidewalk and the waterfront, which I took a couple pictures of. It memoralized possibly the most famous event to ever happen in New Zealand. The story surrounding it involves nuclear weapons, espionage, Greenpeace, murder, and politics. The event, which I was fairly familiar with, is described
here . It was pretty cool to sort of stumble across the mural.
Last night, I got kind of bored and went down to the kitchen, where there are many different groups of people making their own dinner, and I ran into the group from the IEP meeting. We sat around for a couple hours talking, and then met a guy from NYC who eventually had us all go down to the bar next door and play pool. We did, and it was cool drinking a famous New Zealand
Obsession.
The All Blacks is their nickname for their national rugby team. This is on the facade for some sporting outlet, so this would be the equivalent of Nike putting on a sign of the store: "The US Men's Basketball Team." beer, Monteith's Summer Ale. We met some cool German guys, and I think I'm going to hang out with them tonight. IEP has a little get together at 5, so I'm going to go to that, and we'll see what goes on afterwards.
Today, I'm trying to find a hostel to stay in for the next week in Auckland. The cheapest one by far is the Oceanic Hostel, at $80/week, but it doesn't seem too
user friendly . So, we'll see about that. I've decided I'm going to stay for a least a week, and probably not much more before getting out of here. I have a rugby ticket for Saturday, and there is a $99 surfing trip on the 21st which I think I'm going to go on.
I'm trying to decide where to go next, and I think I've got it down to 2 places:
Taupo and
Bay of Islands . Bay of Islands is in the north, and I feel like waiting for the winter months(the summer months in the states) to go there because it is relatively warm year round. However, I'm trying not to get a bus, so I'll take whatever ride I can get, no matter where
it goes.
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