As you may or may not know, the drinking culture in New Zealand is pretty popular. It is instantly obvious to anyone who has visited the UK that much of the alcohol fascination comes from their longstanding relationship, but the laid back, fun nature of this place makes it unique from the mother country (and I haven’t yet stepped foot into a bar since I’ve been here).
Our hostel is located near a number of bars, and when the time comes to close down for the night (around 4am) and the patrons are all told to get out – you hear of all things – SINGING! My sleeping schedule is still messed up from traveling, so I’m usually awake to hear it. Last night this group of girls did a really excellent harmony to some song that I didn’t recognize, and the night before a group of guys were singing Christmas carols!
Yesterday while coming back from my run, at around 2:30 PM on a Saturday I witnessed a 30-year-old man get out of his car (with a newspaper under his arm no less) and turn into the pub to do a little ‘heightened reading’. But these are things that make New Zealand interesting – people do their own thing and are very accepting of others.
I just realized I haven’t put anything in here about the problems we’ve encountered so far. Our journey has had its pitfalls, but to some extent I feel they are unimportant, because when traveling, it seems problems are a given. However, this doesn’t mean they aren’t unbelievably frustrating at times.
One of the biggest issues has been related to luggage (an excess amount to be exact). Being the pack rat that I am, sometimes I can’t foresee leaving things behind or throwing things away that might be useful in the future. Especially if it means that I might have to buy them again. So I usually bring the kitchen sink (which would’ve been useful in the van – instead we had to buy a van equipped with a sink – BAH).
To NZ I brought the following: rollerblades, a sleeping bag, four pairs of shoes (Croc’s, running shoes, hiking shoes, and dress shoes), a jump rope, a long extension cord, a lot of toiletries, and my external hard drive. Ayu didn’t pack too light either, and as a result we were overweight by approximately 18 kg (about 40 lbs) on our way here (and this was after I left a whole box of stuff at Ayu’s mom’s house from Abu Dhabi). Here’s a picture of all of our junk in the hostel room.
Because we were overweight, and the excess luggage charges are very steep if we had wanted to have it on our plane, we ended up sending two backpacks full of clothes through the airport delivery service from Malaysia to NZ. But evidently in my rush to get it over with, my e-mail address was illegible on the form and try as they might, they couldn’t get a-hold of us to tell us that our luggage had arrived. This meant that for the last week Ayu and I have been stressing out wondering where our luggage is, when the whole time it’s been sitting at the Auckland Airport probably coated with a thick layer of dust (It arrived one day after we did as I found out yesterday).
The plan is to pick up our luggage before we pick up our van tomorrow (if its still there that is).
Cross your fingers for us.
Our hostel is located near a number of bars, and when the time comes to close down for the night (around 4am) and the patrons are all told to get out – you hear of all things – SINGING! My sleeping schedule is still messed up from traveling, so I’m usually awake to hear it. Last night this group of girls did a really excellent harmony to some song that I didn’t recognize, and the night before a group of guys were singing Christmas carols!
Yesterday while coming back from my run, at around 2:30 PM on a Saturday I witnessed a 30-year-old man get out of his car (with a newspaper under his arm no less) and turn into the pub to do a little ‘heightened reading’. But these are things that make New Zealand interesting – people do their own thing and are very accepting of others.
I just realized I haven’t put anything in here about the problems we’ve encountered so far. Our journey has had its pitfalls, but to some extent I feel they are unimportant, because when traveling, it seems problems are a given. However, this doesn’t mean they aren’t unbelievably frustrating at times.
One of the biggest issues has been related to luggage (an excess amount to be exact). Being the pack rat that I am, sometimes I can’t foresee leaving things behind or throwing things away that might be useful in the future. Especially if it means that I might have to buy them again. So I usually bring the kitchen sink (which would’ve been useful in the van – instead we had to buy a van equipped with a sink – BAH).
To NZ I brought the following: rollerblades, a sleeping bag, four pairs of shoes (Croc’s, running shoes, hiking shoes, and dress shoes), a jump rope, a long extension cord, a lot of toiletries, and my external hard drive. Ayu didn’t pack too light either, and as a result we were overweight by approximately 18 kg (about 40 lbs) on our way here (and this was after I left a whole box of stuff at Ayu’s mom’s house from Abu Dhabi). Here’s a picture of all of our junk in the hostel room.
Because we were overweight, and the excess luggage charges are very steep if we had wanted to have it on our plane, we ended up sending two backpacks full of clothes through the airport delivery service from Malaysia to NZ. But evidently in my rush to get it over with, my e-mail address was illegible on the form and try as they might, they couldn’t get a-hold of us to tell us that our luggage had arrived. This meant that for the last week Ayu and I have been stressing out wondering where our luggage is, when the whole time it’s been sitting at the Auckland Airport probably coated with a thick layer of dust (It arrived one day after we did as I found out yesterday).
The plan is to pick up our luggage before we pick up our van tomorrow (if its still there that is).
Cross your fingers for us.
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