New Zealand.....Hideous!

Bethell's Beach

Just as I suspected, New Zealand is gross! Lousy with deserted beaches, pristine forest and rare exotic birds. For those of you who can't tell, I'm being just a tad facetious. The place is spectacular! I've been in Auckland now for a little over 2 weeks, and expected this part of my trip to be a little more urban. Well it is and it isn't. The city limits cover a very large area and then the region of Auckland is even bigger. There are some parts of it that feel like a major city and others that feel like isolated wilderness. Auckland is the city with the world largest pacific islander population, and along with a good mix of Europeans and Asians it makes for a very diverse group. I'm looking forward to going to the Avondale market this weekend which has an extensive amount of everything pacific islander! Despite having over a million people you are always just a short drive away from gorgeous forests, rivers and beaches. Hiking trails or tracks spread throughout the region, making it very easy to get out and explore. The beaches are amazingly clean and anything but crowded. I spent a couple of days a Bethell's beach also known as Te Henga. If it looks familiar it may be that you've seen it in Xena, Warrior Princess or Hercules, the Legendary Journeys! Its also where they filmed The Piano.

Gannet Colony at Muriwai

I've had two amazing birding experiences so far, the first being Tiritiri Matangi, a wildlife sanctuary island that is completely pest free and home to some of NZ's rarer species of birds such as the kokako, little brown kiwi, and little blue penguins. Its also home to tuataras which are an extremely unique order of reptiles. The second amazing birding experience was a trip up to the Muriwai beach gannet colony. Gannets are shore birds that nest in humongous colonies. These dramatic colonies at Muriwai beach are tightly situated upon steep cliffs which drop off to the crashing waves below. Having spent many a day watching David Attenborough study and document New Zealand's birds, finally being here in person is a bit surreal. It is surprising how tame the birds seem here, since they have evolved with no natural predators they historically have had nothing to fear. However, just as people do, they have managed to unintentionally bring in some hungry rodents and weasels. A couple of the major pests here are rats, Australian possums, and stoats. I recently read an article about how to humanely deal with these pests if you catch them on your property. Drowning is not acceptable; bashing them on the head with a hammer seems to quickly do the job! mleh...

Gannets, making out.

I'm now staying with my third hosts here in NZ and everyone has been very welcoming. There is a strong DIY spirit here which I find very admirable. I have already met several people who have designed and built their own houses, all of which have been beautiful. Totally unique and intricate, most have been made from reused materials! Everyone just seems to know how to swing a hammer down here.

 In a cave on a beach in New Zealand

A few quirky differences about NZ:

-Light switches are upside down.
-Every outlet has an on/off switch.
-Just about all toilets are dual flush.
-Bathing suits are called "togs".
-Muesli is the breakfast of choice.

I have so many pictures and not enough time to load them, they'll be here eventually...

Cheers!

From Oakland to Auckland

Where to start... A week in Sausalito and a marathon journey to New Zealand. Sausalito is a very posh vacation town directly across the Golden Gate bridge from San Francisco. After spending 2 months in the funky, hippie, grungy NW this was a dramatic change of atmosphere. Fancy cars, boutiques, and designer dog collars. Different.

Alcatraz

My fellow help-xer Chris, who oddly enough is from Leesburg, VA and I spent our work hours around the house working in the garden, painting, fixing leaky sinks, etc. On our day off Elizabeth, our host, dropped us off at the foot of the Golden Gate bridge and we took off! The walk across the bridge was beautiful, with views of the city skyline, Alcatraz, and Angel Island. It was a bit crowded though, with aggressive cyclists whizzing past every minute or so and tourists snapping pics everywhere along the way. Once we got across the bridge we hopped on a bus to check out Haight-Ashbury. Jerry Garcia plastered everywhere, tie-dye shirts for sale in every window, head shops, and a few very trendy stores sprinkled in between. The air was indeed thick with pachouli. A kid who was obviously indulging in the spirit of the district (drugs) asked me for the coffee I was drinking, "No", I said. He then asked for my Nalgene bottle, he was again denied. Persistent little fellow. We crossed over into Golden Gate Park where the substances were plentiful. We couldn't walk 50 feet without being offered "cush diesel nugs, beasters, or shrooms". It was quite the scene, several people completely strung out, a woman speaking in tongues, dogs running wild, hula hoops! We didn't need to hang around and quickly made our way through the park over to the de Young museum for a view from the observation tower there. After the park we meandered by bus and on foot down town to Union Square. To end out the day we found a great little dive bar/ music venue called the Hotel Utah where we drank a couple local Speakeasy IPAs, delicious!

Hotel Utah

A couple more work days and a nice day trip to Muir Woods to see the redwoods and my time in California was coming to a close. 6am Sunday morning my epic journey began. Chris was kind enough to get up early and drop me off at the amtrak station. My train brought me to Bakersfield, CA where I transferred to a bus that brought me to Union Station in LA. *Travel tip* Amtrak refers to their Union Station in Los Angeles as "LAX". This is not LAX airport! It is in fact about a 45 min drive from the airport, which I found out the night before heading down there. Luckily there is a shuttle that leaves every 30 mins for $7. So the shuttle brings me to LAX airport where I find out when checking in that New Zealand requires proof of an exit ticket from the country before they allow you to enter (no squatters). So I run over to the airport lounge, buy my fully refundable ticket to Sydney, print out the confirmation and bring it back to the check-in desk. Phew! After an intense few moments scrambling to make sure I can get on my plane, I actually breeze through security and get to my gate with way too much time to kill. The flight ends up getting delayed 3 hrs, which unfortunately cut the layover in Fiji down to just a scrabble from gate to gate. So my experience in Fiji was just a muggy rainy schlep from one side of the airport to the other, with plenty of waiting in line. Delightful! Back on another plane and in 4 hrs, as we break through the clouds, I see the literally breath taking view (I actually gasped) of New Zealand's northern islands and shoreline!  
This was the hard part. After seeing such a beautiful sight, you just want to jump off the plane and run into the ocean, but no. Its time for customs! Two more hours of waiting in line! Yay! So finally I get out of the airport and jump on yet another bus to get to Albany, which is on the far Northeast side of Auckland. Oh wait, one more bus transfer at the Ferry building in downtown Auckland. Ahhh finally, I get to my stop. As soon as I walk off the bus I hear my name yelled from across the parking lot. Its my host Liesbeth and her two adorable daughters, Isabelle and Sophie. I threw my bags in the boot, and almost jumped in the drivers seat. I'm still getting used to the opposite side of the road thing.
The house here is on about 5 acres with a couple other cottages that are occupied by renters. The views are great. The birds are beautiful! I cannot wait to get a NZ bird guide book and completely geek out. I'm about 2 days in and still a bit jet-lagged. Cheers!