LA to Auckland

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Kia Ora! Welcome to the World Wide Gomes Adventures, I'm your host Bryan Gomes. Today we are going to review my passage to New Zealand. Flying from LA to Auckland (a mere 14 hour ride over the Pacific on a hefty 747) I had an aisle seat and there was an empty seat and then a man sitting at the window. He was an older black getleman with shoulder length dreads and wearing lightly tinted sunglasses. He asked if anyone was sitting in the seat between us and I said "I hope not, I'd like to stretch out". We laughed, introduced ourselves and he said his name was Junior. About 5 minutes later a stewardess stopped at our row and passed a piece of paper over to him and asked him to sign it. Why The Face! I asked her who that was and she whispered back "he's the lead singer of The Wailers". OMG! Not only that but he is one of the 3 remaining original member that played with Robert Nester Marley! I was beside me self and for the first 3 hours after take-off I was asking questions and hearing stories about the life and times of Bob frickin Marley! When he found out I was a DJ and my love of music he said "Wow, you got a great seat on this flight". I learned many things I had never heard and seen in any magazine or documentary. Such as Bob loved soccer more than he loved music. He wanted to play in the British Football League. Also that he was a big fan of Elvis Pressely and considered him one of his influences. Junior also told me that he was given a job offer to play with Bob Marley and Stevie Wonder ... on the same day! Before joining Bob, Junior was playing with Steve Winwood in Traffic. He was also in the movies Hair (the age of aquarius) and Help (Beatles). After talking off and on and taking notes Junior told me their band was in New Zealand for a week playing different show and asked if we would like to be on the guest list for the show in Auckland on Saturday night. I said yes please, exchanged contact info and thanked him immensely.

When we touched down in Auckland my friend Paul was there to pick us up. Paul and I hiked together on my Appalachian Trail thru-hike in 2004 and I have kept in touch with him since as I thought of when I could come see his amazing country. We came back to his house, a nice 4 bedroom house he bought a few years back in a suburb of Auckland. He lives with his fiance Inga (congrats guys) and 3 mates from his school years Sam, Brendan and Mark. With a full house we set up or tarps/tents on the back porch and had a very hospitable stay. Paul's roommates are great and we enjoyed sharing stories of cultural differences and the misnomer that America is a country where bullets are constantly flying and you need to carry a gun, thank you Hollywood!

Our first day there we walked over to the mall (about a 10 minute walk) to see about activating my borrowed blackberry styled phone (thank you Jess). You're not gonna believe this but the managing company of the mall (says it in the exact same red font) is Westfield! Apparently they're global and have the mall thing down. We went to the CD store to see what Kiwis are listening to and see what another culture does. And guess what? They even have the annoying folks at the center kiosks in the mall walking up to you and asking "Excuse me, do you keep your fingernails natural? Try this ..." Some things never change :p After a while we went to the grocery store in the mall to buy a "American" dinner to prepare for out hosts. We decided to cook up chicken fajitas (more central than north American but American non the less) and wandered through the store collecting our ingredients. As I navigated the store I was rather surprised to see the egg section sitting on shelves in a middle aisle ... NOT refrigerated! I mean heaps of eggs just out. Apparently they are not pressed about salmonella here and they also sit out when they are bought and brought home. And room temperature eggs taste just fine, though I went for more hard than soft boiled all the same :p We came back to the house and prepared a great meal of chicken fajitas and all the topping including guacamole that I made from fresh avacados! All our hosts were fed and happy.

When you hear Bob Marley, turn it up and think of me.

Wildlife sightings: Unfortunately my first bird I saw here, a sparrow. Though I've seen their robin which is half the size of our American robin.

Thank Yous: Junior Marvin, Paul and Inga, for taking time out of their wedding prep to host us, Sam. Brendan and Mark

Next time: My journey to downtown Auckland

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