First two weeks in Auckland

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I moved into the Railway Campus on the 4th of July. There were no fireworks here, but the day was still wonderful because I watched Lord of the Rings and I got to sleep in my own room, in my own bed. The first couple of days I was here in Auckland I did a lot of shopping, mostly at a place called The Warehouse that is similar to Target or K-Mart. The rest of my time was spent setting up my room and going out at night. The first bar we went to was amazing. It is called Rakino’s and is on the second floor of a building on High Street. The mood was wonderful, candle type lighting, great DJ, leather couches and scattered tables, dark walls, stocked bar and kiwi bartenders…in a word: perfect, just what I’d always hoped bars would be. At another bar 5 minutes from my flat (The Strand) a few of my friends (Anna, Corina, Annie) and I met three Kiwis named Gareth, Glenn aka “Nash” and Daniel. The next day the seven of us drove to a place called North Head, which is across the Harbor from Auckland, at the mouth of the Waitemata Harbor. North Head is a defense fort that was set up in the late 1800s and expanded during WWI and WWII. There is an elaborate system of tunnels through this old volcanic cone. We returned to The Strand that night to watch the All Blacks (NZ’s rugby team) play Australia on TV.

Megan arrived on the 8th! We went to the Auckland Museum and I learned how to swing dance on the 11th, we went ice skating on the 12th, we went to Rakino’s and The Globe on the 13th, we watched Animal House (which I had never seen but was informed by Megan that that was unacceptable) with Chris and Kyle on the 14th, I went to an ELEMENO P concert on the 15th (kind of punk rock-esque…awesome), we went to Rangitoto Island (a dormant volcano and a brutal uphill hour-long walk that yielded fabulous 360 views) on the 16th and we started classes on the 17th.

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Photos

North Head
Annie and Corina at North Head with Rangitoto in the background.

Ice Cream Sundays
Garath and Annie eating sundays made of cheap ice cream.

Ice Skating
Megan and Annie and I went ice skating with other people who live in the Railway Campus. We walked 10 min uphill to the bus stop and took a 30 minute bus ride there, only to find a dark, crowded ice rink with choppy ice and skates with no edges whatsoever. To put it mildly, I was pissed off.

ELEMENO P
Chris and I at the Kiwi punk rock concert.

Rangitoto Ferry
Megan and I getting off the ferry at Rangitoto.

Lava Caves
Floren, Meg, Chris and Melvin in front of the lava caves. Despite advance warning and my trusty mag lite (that I brought along) Meg hit her head - fortunately her sunglasses took the brunt of the impact. And let's be honest, we all know she's probably hit her head many many times before, and it hasn't done too much damage yet.

Auckland City
A beautiful view of Auckland from the top of Rangitoto.

Ocean
Aren't the waves beautiful?

Rangitoto is a Volcano
In the center of the photo there is a "small" patch of black rock. This is a large field of scoria viewed from the top of the volcano. The path we hiked up was surrounded on both sides by similar scoria fields. Yes... I did bring a small sample of scoria back for my rock collection!

Auckland Skyline
This is Auckland, my home for the next 4 months, the Sky Tower (the tallest building in the southern hemisphere) is in the center. The photo was taken on the retrun ferry from Rangitoto.

Comments

[Maryclaire]

i miss you two!!!!!
Yay! Pictures! I'm sorry we didn't connect last Saturday (for me), Sunday (for you). We'll have to try again soon. You guys look like you're having so much fun!! I MISSSSS YOUUUU!