so, here is my long expected auckland-blog:
on saturday the 29th of september me and johnson were invited over to annas house because katharina (not my host sister but another swiss AFS-student who’s stationed in new plymouth and spent her holidays around wellington) had a night free to visit us in our beautiful little upper hutt. so i spent a not so long evening with chatting and eating at annas house. not so long because i went home at 8 o'clock. this was because i had to get up at 5 am. next morning to catch the 6 o'clock train to wellington. because it was daylight safe the same day it was actually 4 am. when i had to get up. i was alone this morning because all the others were at the beach house. so i got up and prepared to leave. i put all the snacks i have bought in my backpack and i put my toothbrush into my toilet bag(the one gabi girsberger gave me before i left. thank you for that. i thought i would never need it : ) but now...) which i appreciate very much. after having packed everything i locked the door and left out to where it was dark and unknown... upper hutt was still asleep when i made my way to the train station. only accompanied by my wine red suitcase and my beloved backpack. i was concerned about the loud rattle sound the little wheels of my suitcase where making. i didnt want to wake all people up. but i arrived in wellington without any problems. in wellington train station i went to the ticket window to get the tickets we have preordered. as i waited for my turn i saw eliane(swiss AFS-student). i was afraid she might have forgotten the daylight save but she was there. i got the tickets and we brought our big bags to a place where they collected all the baggage of the passengers waiting for the ‘overlander’ train. soon after that we said good bye to elianes host mother who brought her to the station and entered the train which soon after that left the station for a 12 hours trip over amazing landscapes, along shores and islands, beaches, rainforests, mountains and volcanoes through tunnels, fens and suburbs up to auckland. we stopped at many different places.
in 'national park' we had a 45 minutes stop to go outside the train and stretch our legs. this place is really in the middle of nowhere. just a long, long road that leads to the centre of this small village. the only exciting thing for the people living there is probably the two trains that cross this place once a day to stop and let heaps of tourists out which then enter the old station restaurant that is probably the most important economical institution of this sad place. after about half an hour later we reached the world famous 'raurimu-spirale'. train fanatics from all over the place come to new zealand just to do this descent of about 90 meters. they had to a spiral tunnel to descent with the train in this narrow valley. this engineering feature was opened in 1929 and is still working well. it isnt that amazing. but there was a lot of information about it given through the trains loud speaking installation. we were often provided with historical backgrounds as we passed through the corresponding areas of the country. another indicator for this train to be a very touristy kind of thing.
we arrived in with 45 minutes delay in aucklands very flash new train station at 8.15pm. the station is called 'britomart' which i think its funny because it sounds like an italian supermarket. we got our luggage back and went out on the place where jenny(eliane's host aunty) waited for us. we got into her car and drove off through the rainy dark city. i was reminded of my first evening here in NZ when fiona and cherise picked me up and we drove through the rainy night from wellington to upper hutt. and as then we could only see traffic lights and the break lights of the other vehicles. we went to bed pretty early after having met harry(jennys husband) in their pretty house in ‘mt. eden’.
the next day was our shopping day. we slept in till 12am. in the morning. sleeping in was one of the luxuries we allowed us every day we spent in auckland. we caught the bus to britomart and then walked up queens street which is the main shopping street in auckland. we were going from shop to shop when it started to rain in such an intensity that we had to walk very close to the shop windows to not get wet. even though there were shelters. so we decided to go to the nearby auckland art gallery. a european style building. we saw some international modern art. it was all about the topic ' what is mystery'. but eliane didnt like it and because she is very interested in arts she went to another gallery with old new zealand art and maori portraits. i didnt want to see that so i walked further around and went to an asian hairdresser to get my hair cut. after we reunited aigain we went to a cafe to drink a hot chocolate and eat a banana bread. i was trying to write my postcards when a man started to talk to us(and didnt stop until he has told us his whole entire life story. but we didnt know this at the beginning of our conversation). we first thought: "oh cool someone is talking to us." but then... you know... yes and this was already the first day and we went home to eat dinner with jenny. harry didnt eat with us because he was sick and stayed in his bed for the whole week.
on tuesday, we went to kelly tarltons underwater world which is placed at the beach somewhere west of downtown auckland. we went there with lea(a swiss girl from auckland chapter) but we were earlier than lea and so we walked along the shore and out a footbridge to a yacht-racing starting point. the aquarium wasnt worth the 22 dollars we had to pay for it. there was a small antarctica exhibition a poor penguin cage and a shark tank we could walk through in a tube. they took a picture of us in front of an antarctic scenery at the beginning and in the souvenir shop we had the possibility to purchase this picture for 28(!!!). of course we didnt. but i bought gifts for all my host family members. a t-shirt for cherise toe socks for micaela and to different special sauces, one strawberry-chocolate and a kiwifruit sauce. and that was the second day. i know it doesnt sound like much but it took us always very long to get to one place and back to jennys house again and in addition auckland isnt very save after night falls. so we went home ate another dinner without harry watched 'matrix' on the television and some 'simpsons' episodes.
on wednesday we went to the zoo. we paid 14 dollars and got a far better show than we got in the aquarium. auckland zoo is proud of the authentic surroundings it provides the exotic animals with. all the animals seemed very happy and we enjoyed it very much there. in the evening we took the bus to ‘howick’ where we were invited to by lea. she showed us around at the small beach near her house and we ate a wonderful lasagna together with her family. we were playing cards with leas host brother and his friend when jenny came over and picked us up. that of course was a very nice thing to do because it isnt an ordinary thing to pick people up at the other end of the city. even not for new zealanders. the only bad thing about meeting lea was that she constantly spoke to us in swiss german even though we texted her in english.
thursday was our last day and the only day without any raindrops at all. we decided to go to the auckland museum which is similar to tepapa in wellington. we took the bus but got off it earlier than we usually did. so just shortly before the university. we walked over a very high bridge from which we could see over several highways down to the harbor, past a huge, modern hospital and through a very nice park with playgrounds and a cricket field. in the middle of this park on a hill is the museum which is a classicism styled building. we saw an exhibition about all the wars that new zealand took part in from the very first wars of the settlers against the maori tribes to the vietnam war. there where also sections with modern art and design and a big room all about volcanoes. after that we went back to queens street to go shopping. for the second time. i first wanted to buy shoes but ended up with two polo shirts for 50 NZ$.
jenny took us up on 'one-tree-hill' which is a big hill(a former volcano like most of the big hills around auckland). there really was one tree on this hill because when the settlers burned and cut all the trees down to receive land for farming they left one tree standing. but this tree has been cut down by maoris who wanted saw it as a symbol of settlement or something. but we had a amazing view from up there. and thats the reason why we havent been on the sky tower which is the most popular landmark of auckland.
on friday we had to get up very early in the morning because it was already the day of our departure. jenny brought us to the britomart station and we left without any further complications. the way back to wellington was pretty much the same like the way up to auckland. of course. we saw again heaps of sheep. and i can tell u when ever u go to a restaurant order a new zealand lamb. they are so happy down here. and do you know why? its the space they have. incredibly much!!!
have a nice time. greetings dario
