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Published: December 15th 2005
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Hi all!
Welcome to my New Zealand trip blog. I don’t know how good I’ll be at updating this, but I’ll try. Also, I’ve got internet set up in my room, so I’ll probably be checking blitz all the time, if you want to send me letters. Or you could mail me. Or I could send you postcards if you send me your address. Hint, hint.
I’ve been in Auckland for almost two weeks now. Its been quite a time getting used to being in a city across the world all by myself. I got off the airplane and had literally no idea where I was going and or what to do next. Those first hours in Auckland were a little crazy, but after sitting at the airport for a while, I eventually got myself to a hostel and relaxed a bit.
I spent the first week exploring the city, avoiding actually starting my research work. I walked all over Parnell Street, Posonby Street, the Domain, City Center, Devenport, and Viaduct Basin- basically all of Auckland’s city center. Besides seeing most of the sites of Auckland, I saw a lot of hostels. My first one was a
Auckland City
view from Parnell St. little too relaxed (read- dirty and full of Germans dudes not wearing shirts) and not really a place I imagined spending much time in. Because my original plan was to spend the whole three months in hostels, I needed to find a good place. Over that one week, I probably walked through 7 or 8 different hostels. But on a whim, I went into a University of Auckland dorm and asked if I could stay there. Luckily for me, there was lots of space and the manager was easy to convince that I was a full-time student. Turned out that this was the international dorm where all the Dartmouth FSP students stay so it totally fine for me to move in.
Finding a place to live has made life here much easier. Now I’ve got two suitemates (both from the US) and my own nice room. The German and Japanese backpackers at the hostel were pretty cool (though they didn’t understand that root beer isn’t beer), but I think I’ve got a better set-up now.
I spent this past weekend driving around the central part of the North Island with one of my roommates (Betsy) and a
Sailboat
in Auckland's Waitemata Harbor. Auckland is known as the City of Sails. bunch of other Loyola MD kids. On Thursday night, 6 of us crammed into one of those little euro-vans. After loads of stops, we made it to a hostel in Turangi. Turangi is a little town with nothing but hostels and a Burger King at the edge of Tongariro National Park.
The next morning we got up and rented gear to go skiing. In the middle of the otherwise-flat park is Mt. Ruapehu, the largest of three active volcanoes in the area. It’s home to the North Island’s largest ski resort (though “resort” might be pushing it), Whakapapa Ski Field- pronounced “fock-a-papa”.
We floored the van all the way up to the parking lot- which meant that it went about 20 miles an hour and got passed a lot. At first, the mountain didn’t look too promising- a lot of rock and not much snow. But once the clouds moved away, we could see the huge open field at the top. It proved to be an amazing day. The cloud layer hung out below us most of the day and you could just see the tops of the other volcanoes poking through. I conquered my fear of T-bars (they’re
Whakapapa
With Mt. Ngauruhoe in the background. hard on a snowboard) and had some good ski buddies. It was spring skiing at it’s best and we all had sun burns by the end of the day. I never imagined that I would actually get to go snowboarding in the southern hemisphere, so this was such a treat!
After skiing, we went back to Turangi and had a nice dinner at the only restaurant in town besides the BK. After dinner, we joined a party at the hostel bar. Turned out it was a goodbye party for the manager, and we were the youngest there by about 10-20 years. After listening to too much bad karaoke (never let Kiwis sing American music), I headed back to the room and went to bed.
We spent Saturday driving around and seeing more of the central region. Stops included a visit to Kiwiland where we climbed the 30ft kiwi (the fruit, not the bird or the people) and to the beach town of Mount Maunganui. Though it was too cold to go in the water, the beach was gorgeous and I collected lots of shells. We made it back home that night, after deciding not to stay another night.
Since then, I have actually started my research work. For those of you who I haven’t tried to explain this to yet, I’m supposed to be in NZ doing anthropology work and am being funded by the Goodman Anthropology grant (yay Dartmouth!!!). My research is on urban Maori marae. Marae are meeting house and courtyard complexes that are very important to Maori identity, and I am looking at how these function in an urban environment. The end product of this research is supposed to be a thesis, but the idea of writing a book terrifies me. Oh well.
So this trip is off to a good start. I’m feeling much more settled in now, having found a place to live and after making some new friends. There are loads of other young people here, including a dorm full of Americans, lots of German and British backpackers, and an almost entirely Asian student body at the University of Auckland. The Kiwis themselves are everything I’ve heard- fun-loving, friendly, and frequently unintelligible. I think this will be a good place to spend a few months.
Next on the agenda: bungee jumping on Friday, a Black Eyed Peas show on Saturday night or a possible weekend up in the Bay of Islands. Oh yeah, and more time reading about marae.
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