Meng's Travels: Auckland

Monday, October 29, 2012

Auckland

The most exciting thing that happened to me when I arrived in Auckland is I lost my luggage. Someone had mistakenly taken my luggage, which looks like hers. It took more than 24 hours before that person realized she has the wrong luggage and called Air New Zealand. I finally had my luggage back almost 38 hours after I landed in Auckland. I was ready to go buy some new clothes.
The locals here pronounced Auckland as if it sounds like "Oakland." I am lucky to have friends here whom I stayed with over the weekend. John and Marsha live about 45 minutes east of Auckland in a town called Whitford. I got a local flavor of the city, with them showing me around and taking me to some of the nicest restaurants. We walked around the Harbor, went to the Auckland Museum, Mt Eden, and even went to a local farmers' market. The downtown area is like any city center, a lot of tall office buildings and some parts of it a little rundown. But, where they live, it's beautiful rolling hills and farmlands. Everywhere you look, it's very green.
Auckland is a beautiful city, sandwiched between two oceans: Pacific and the Tasman Sea. It's a relatively small city, about 1.5 million friendly people. It's the largest city in NZ. Things are not cheap here, although it is slightly cheaper than Australia. The exchange rate is USD 1 = NZD 1.22
On Monday, their son, Jonathan, dropped me off downtown, where I checked in to the Nomads Auckland hostel. I want to be downtown because the bus leaves early on Tuesday morning. I stopped by the Stray Travel office and have my trip pretty much planned out. Later, I took a ferry to the island of Waikehe, where there are quite a few wineries and olive farms. The island is about a 45-minute ride from Auckland. Unfortunately, it drizzled the entire time I was there so we could not spend much time outside.
Tomorrow morning I start on my real trip around NZ. The first stop is a town called Raglan, a place known for surfing.