Wellington

We arrived in Wellington on a Saturday. This was unfortunate because all the professional offices such as film schools and architecture firms were closed. Aside from that, Wellington is an amazing little city. There’s a youthful life to the city similar to what you would feel in Portland. They also have a great waterfront park/promenade too. The city felt, well, more urban than Auckland did. This could be due to its geography; the city is on a bay surrounded by steep hills, kind of similar to San Francisco. If I did move to New Zealand, Wellington would be the place I’d start, not Auckland.

Wellington is also the departure point for ferries heading to the South Island. We missed the first ferry around 1pm and the next ferry leaving was at 3am. We really hadn’t “gone out” at all in New Zealand and thought this might be a good opportunity. A word of caution, New Zealand shuts down at 6:00pm. It is quite bizarre. Besides a bar or two nothing is open after 6/7:00. The city becomes a ghost town. Also, the bars and cafes that are usually open are only open until 11 or 12. So much for the nightlife. However, Wellington gets my thumbs up approval.

Hot Stuff

So now the real journey begins. The three men join up with their campervan to embark on their journey across the country. First stop, the Coromandel Peninsula, Hot Water Beach and Cathedral Cove. The Coromandel Peninsula is known as the beach vacation area of choice for the wealthy in Auckland. We decided to only visit two beaches on this peninsula.

Hot Water Beach is a beach in which thermal springs reside underneath the sand and people dig holes in the sand that then fill with the hot thermal water. This can only be done at low tide where the water is low enough for people

to make the holes near the source. We unfortunately reached the beach at high tide and were unable to make our mark. It was a perfectly sunny evening so we enjoyed the sand and surf instead.

After a good but little disappointing experience at Hot Water, we decided to travel north about 9km to Cathedral Cove. This famous beach is named after an arch rock formation separating two coves. We arrived there just before sunset and watched the sun set to the east. This has to be the highlight of the trip thus far. That night the sky grew dark and cold. The rain and wind pounded our little castle reminding us all that it was still winter here.

The next day was a sprint across the heart land of the North Island. From Coromandel we headed south to Wellington only stopping for gas and nature’s necessities. The drive was lengthy and took us much longer than we anticipated. Our wonderful little camper van (we nicknamed Penelope or Penny for short) has the engine fit for a Yogo. Cursing was fine but she struggled immensely to climb any hill. We ended up stopping at nightfall at a small beach town about 2hrs north of Wellington for the night.

Stay to the Left Look to the Right

For those of you who incline to visit the southern hemisphere, let me first warn you that there are unforseen things that can really mess up your day.

As we all know, when you flush a toilet down here, it flows in a counter-clockwise manner. One thing you don't here too often is that your body also has to adjust to that counter-clockwise flow (Coriolus Effect, or something like that).

Through-out our first day in Auckland, we all experienced dizzy spells. Not the "Whoa, I feel dizzy" ones, but the ones where you loose balance, knock you to the ground dizzy. Example, I was sitting on the edge of my bed talking when I got a dizzy spell and fell strait to the ground. No joke. Funny as it was, it's also a little concerning if it were to happen on the street.

The hardest thing to do in Auckland was to cross a street. This is not because they didn't have traffic signals or crazy drivers. It was the fact that back in the States we always look left to check for traffic. Here, you need to check right first. Stay left, check right. That is the phrase we say to ourselves at every intersection.

Auckland is alright not my favorite city. Fun to visit but eh... there are better places in this world. Enjoy the clip.

15 hrs of Darkness

So let me catch everyone up. Flight to Auckland from LA was awesome. Seats were roomy and each has their own TV/entertainment set up. There were 52 movies to choose from, games, music amongst other things. As a bonus, there were not a lot of people on our flight, so once the plane was in the air, the three of us move up to the seats in front of us. This way we had no one behind or in front of us and could recline at any time. Never has a 14hr flight gone by so quickly!

We arrived at Auckland International at sunrise after spending 15 hours in darkness. Customs went smoothly and we found ourselves contemplating what to do now. It was too early to check into our B&B but we needed to leave the airport. "Lets just go downtown, have a coffee and walk around." Fair enough.

We caught the local bus to downtown for $13 a piece. Auckland City is quite a ways north from the airport. We got off at the ferry terminal at the harbor, the last stop on the route. Grabbed our bags and headed into the heart of downtown. We all had to just accept that we were tourists and that we would look a bit weird.

So we walked.. and walked some more, heading in the general direction of our home in Auckland. Auckland was a bit hillier than I thought. That, plus the luggage factor made the 2km seem longer than it was.

Our place of residence in Auckland is at a bed and breakfast called Freeman's. I would highly recommend if for anyone thinking of traveling here. We arrive there about an hour before the apparent check in time (There was no mention of time anywhere in our paperwork) Once we checked in and dropped our bags off we ventured back into the city. Mind you it was only 10:30 am at this point. We had an entire day to explore.

Flat tires and the Mormon Church

Always good times in the air, our PDX to LAX did not dissappoint. Before lift off our plane got a flat tire and we had to sit on the runway while the ground crew changed it out. I have to say, it feels a bit weird to be jacked up on the plane.

Two of us got one seat and one had to sit with another. This other happens to be a very devout and lets just say passionate Mormon Lady. Our lucky man Chris was the fortunate soul that had to endure a non-stop 2.5hr conversation about the Mormon Church. Thank you Chris for your sacrifice.

Meanwhile, Luke and myself decided to try a crossword. Just for the record,.... we suck.

Lesson 1

Not more than 2 min out my apartment and I have a story. While walking downtown to catch the MAX, I saw one of my neighbors walking her dog across the street. I have lived in my apartment for two years and I have walked by her house every single day and have never spoken.

Now with my luggage in tow, she stops me and asks me if I'm moving or something. I chuckle and tell her that I'm heading to New Zealand. She offers to drive me to the MAX . Now at this time the sky is pretty gray and beginning to sprinkle . I politely declined and proceeded on my way. No more than 5 minutes later and the sky opened up. Nothing like dragging luggage 2 miles soaking wet.

Next time you get a random opportunity take it. Lesson learned.

PROLOGUE

and come we shall...

Go back a couple years to one fateful Thanksgiving Eve dinner. A family member just returned from a work related trip to New Zealand. They brought with them a monogram of an architecture firm from NZ. While gazing through the projects something clicked... This is where I want to go.

Why? I get this question a lot. Well there are a lot of reasons but really, why not? After balking at the idea for a couple years of, I finally decided to jump in. Well kind of, more like wade in but at least it's forward progress right?

For the next two weeks, my two best friends; my (not so) little brother and our neighbor growing up, will be exploring this small but amazing country. We each have our own reasons, me... architecture, my brother (Chris) film schools, Luke (neighbor)... well he's just along for the ride. I mean, how can one seriously turn down a trip to a far away land with best friends? It just shouldn't, wouldn't, couldn't happen. We're not sure what to expect or what we'll find. All we know is that this will be epic. Stay tuned.