Day 8-10 - Vancouver

Monday 26 July 2004, CWST (GMT-7, Hawaii +3hrs, Perth -15hrs)

As we enjoyed a wonderful Air Canada breakfast, I got to chat with a guy from Victoria BC who explained some of the cultural nuances to me and some of the things I might come to expect in Canada. After a spectacular overview of Tofino, central Vancouver Island and finally Vancouver itself (which is, confusingly, neither the capital of British Columbia despite being Canada's third-largest city, nor is it on Vancouver Island), we landed. As we walked onto the gate, the guy from the plane said to me "Welcome to Canada". Some incredible First Nations wood carvings and a "Welcome to Vancouver/Bienvenue a Vancouver" sign later, I was at Canada Customs, which took literally 5 minutes before I was off looking for more spring water and the Airporter bus (C$12 one way) to get me to the city. The Airporter basically went straight up Granville Street and over the Granville Bridge, then wove and wound around the city dropping people off at hotels.

This is a beautiful city - well-maintained roads, lots of green around the place, trolley-buses running on electric cables overhead, two beautiful harbours - False Creek (south) and Burrard Inlet (north) - and mountains just behind the northern suburbs providing an amazing backdrop. For those not familiar with Vancouver's geography, the shape of the city (on the west coast of Canada) is not unlike an outstretched hand with the Vancouver CBD being the thumb and North/West Vancouver, Vancouver midtown, Richmond (and the airport) and White Rock being fingers. Each is separated by a river or waterway and there is some amazing bridges, including the Burrard and Granville bridges to the south, Annacis Bridge further south, Pattullo Bridge near New Westminster (about 8km SE and the former provincial capital), and of course the Lions Gate Bridge which crosses from Stanley Park to West Vancouver and is probably the most famous. Vancouver itself has 600,000 people and is one of the most densely populated areas in North America, but the Greater Vancouver region has 1.8 million. Not far away to the west is Vancouver Island, a mountainous island about 450km NW-SE x 100km wide, running parallel to the coast. The provincial capital, Victoria, a city of about 300,000, is on the south coast, and is 1.5 hours from Vancouver by ferry (which costs about $10). To the north and east of Vancouver are the Coast Mountains (the Rockies are another 600km inland). These mountains have spectacular peaks and lakes, hot springs, and Whistler and its ski slopes, about 100km north of Vancouver, which will be the the home of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The Vancouver Downtown hostel is my accommodation for this 2-week stay, and it is definitely a much nicer place than I expected, and is centrally located, has full facilities, friendly staff, and is in a nice part of the prestigious West End district only 200-300m from the False Creek beaches. My only complaint is that the dorms are a bit stuffy so you wouldn't want to use them for much more than sleeping.

After walking around the city and getting my mobile prepaid SIM card (apparently a novelty in Canada) and a beautiful Persian meal for under C$12, and meeting my friend Daniel who was a large part of the reason why I came here, I ended up sleeping for most of the day, exhausted after 3 days with basically no meaningful sleep or good food.

Tuesday 27 July 2004, CWST (GMT-7)

Woke up just after midnight and walked up Davie Street looking for lunch. This is the heart of the gay district in town (evidenced by the pride flags on every - and I mean every - window) and I was amazed to find a range of supermarkets and cafes open. I ended up getting a tuna subway and water (I was still dehydrated from Hawaii!)

Came back to the hostel then went out again to explore the city. I saw the harbour by night, Granville Street (well and truly happening even at 3am) and spent part of the morning with two homeless people who were telling jokes to earn quarters from the public. (Canada has the same denominations and coin sizes as the US for 1c, 5c, 10c and 25c, but has a $1 coin shaped approximately like the Aus 50c coin, and a bimetallic $2 which looks really cool)

After we parted ways, I walked over the Granville Bridge and into the inner southern suburbs of Fairview and Kitsilano. Houses around here are really nice and elaborate, and the streets look quiet and well-landscaped. Saw in sunrise at Hadden Park, with some awesome views over the city, and then decided to go properly exploring on the SkyTrain. The SkyTrain is a Vancouver institution built for the 1986 World Expo, and more information can be found here. They're actually really cute (at least I think so :) - much smaller than Perth trains, but way more frequent as well.

Saw a green area on the map near Lougheed station in the Burnaby region so decided to get off and explore it. To get there, catch the Millennium line to Lougheed, then catch a 101 bus about 5 stops and get off on Cariboo Road, and walk down Avalon Avenue. About 400m later you should come to an info kiosk with brochures and information. Burnaby Lake took up the rest of my morning, with its flat walkways and stunning forest smells and views. It's weird seeing really green vegetation again - you see it in Tasmania and in some parts of Victoria, but Australia generally doesn't have deep greens, more blue/aqua and brownish greens.

Although I bushwalk whenever I can in Australia, I'd never been in a northern forest before and the trees are very different - generally quite straight trees such as conifers, maples, firs and oaks, with a lot of interesting ferns and other vegetation with names like red huckleberries, butterfly weed, policemen's helmets, etc. I do warn you, though - if you go there, there are plenty of mosquitos. I was unprepared, so got a few bites. Towards the end of the walk, I saw some Canada geese rather humorously arranged on a sports field almost as if they were going to play ball.

Found my exit onto Kensington Avenue and, together with a little guy from the Netherlands Antilles who asked me for directions, walked up to the nearest SkyTrain station. As I said before, one thing I love about travelling is the interesting people I get to meet.

Hungry and tired, I went on the prowl for food in central Vancouver, and soon discovered Samba's Brazilian restaurant on Burrard and Alberni. The way this place works - you have an all you can eat salad bar (with items like mushrooms cooked in wine, cauliflower, broccoli, chickpeas, caesar salads sans-bacon, etc) for $6.95, but if you want to, you pay an additional $6 and they give you a green card. While the green card (Sim! Por Favor with a bull on it) is up, the Brazilian meat chefs, looking somewhat like toreadors with their red napkins, cut off bits of meat from a skewer in front of you. When you're full (I was staggering out of the place), you turn the green card over to display a red card which says "I Give Up!" and a sad-looking bull on it. I have never been so full for $13 in my life before.

Not needing dinner, I continued my wanderings around the city, looking at the steam clock in Gastown (something of a tourist trap with myopic old people trying to hug the thing, etc) and then heading off to North Vancouver aboard the Seabus, part of Translink BC's public transport system. Came back to the hostel at sunset and met up with Daniel again, who has just moved into the hostel so I can see him a bit more.

Wednesday 28 July 2004, CWST (GMT-7)

Got up early and had breakfast at The Dish ($4.37 for a full breakfast - not bad! - discount with YHA/HI membership) on Davie St (Burrard/Thurlow), then went out to buy some DEET-containing mosquito repellent before going up to Stanley Park for a free tour (public transport charges apply to get there with the group though) with HI-Vancouver Central's expert guide Walter and about 15 others, most of whom were British and Australian. Stanley Park is a huge park which juts out on a peninsula into the ocean immediately north-west of the city centre - we spent about 3 hours amongst its rainforest trails and being educated on northern-style temperate rainforest ecology. It was a great opportunity for me to learn about some of the stuff I'd seen at Burnaby Lake, and if you're staying at either Downtown or Central this tour is pretty much a must given its short duration and its cost (or lack thereof).

After the tour I went into the city for a bit and did some more exploring (I've touched barely one-quarter of the city centre - it's huge!) before heading off to Pacific Central Station to buy my Greyhound tickets for later in my trip (you get a discount on some of them for buying in advance, and a 10% discount for YHA/HI membership). On the way back, I went to Chinatown and spent most of the evening at Dr Sun Yat-sen's Classical Chinese Garden and the adjoining Sun Yat-sen Park on Carrall Street with Daniel. This was the first Chinese garden of its type built outside China, and was completed just in time for the 1986 Expo with help from the Chinese government and 52 local artisans. The Chinese are very holistic in their approach to everything, and this Ming Dynasty styled garden, usually found in the houses of civil servants and town mayors and the like, was fascinating in its yin-yang contrasts and the fact that, despite being only 80m x 100m, there was design features which made it look much larger, such as an artificial mountain with a "ting" pagoda on it, sharp bends, Chinese/Japanese trees creatively placed to block views on one side and enhance them on the other, etc. It is free to enter the park, and $8.95 to enter the garden - and if you get in at the right time you get a free tour of the garden, which explains a lot of the subtleties you'd otherwise miss. It was a great experience to behold - a little oasis of calm in the middle of this very busy city.

Afterwards I walked back to the hostel, mostly to clean up my mosquito bites and get my newly-charged camera batteries before going off to watch the 10pm fireworks which had all but stopped the city with security and police from as early as 8pm. These fireworks are the first of four being held over two weeks, a kind of mini-Olympics for pyrotechnicians from China, Sweden and Spain to strut their stuff from English Bay on the southern coast of the city centre. Tonight it was China's turn, and they turned it on in style - I got to watch it from the beach down the bottom of Thurlow Street near my hostel. I did manage to take a video of a couple of mins of it (15mb, so dunno how I'll post it), but the above site has some good-quality stills.

Came back to Davie Street, got a kebab for $2.99 (yes, you heard right) in this awesome place called Casablanca that was playing Arabic techno music, and then found the cheap net cafe next door and downloaded my shots (from Hawaii and here) and movies.

This morning has been a bit boring to report, but I finally have time today to spend with Daniel rather than running off doing or exploring something. It'll be my only quiet day in the itinerary most probably - I have a heap of plans and you'll get to hear of them as I do the things on there. :)

Hope all my readers are doing well and I look forward to your feedback!

Day 6-7 - Honolulu (Log)

With the whinging out of the way (on looking back, I was probably a bit harsh), I'm going to quickly summarise my last 29 hours in Hawaii, from where I left off.

20:00 Sat - Found good sushi at the 7/11 about 5 blocks from my hotel (the Ohana Maile Sky Court, the tallest hotel in Waikiki at 44 storeys) and then turned in for the night, watching a couple of US TV shows and chatting to my parents and friends before doing so.

Sun morning - Slept in so missed the Pearl Harbor tour I had booked and paid for. While I couldn't get a refund, the helpful lady downstairs informed me entry was actually free and I could get The Bus to it. After breakfast I did exactly that.

10:30 - Reached Pearl Harbor and entered the visitors centre. Was given a ticket for the 1:30pm boarding of the Arizona Memorial.

11:30 - Decided not to wait, but got some good shots and read all the displays in the visitors centre. It was quite stunning seeing the actual Japanese missile which downed the USS Arizona, the original anchor, reading about not just the story about what happened on the American side, and the personal stories and letters of many of those who died as well as survivors, but information from the Japanese side about how the attack was planned and coordinated. The place itself is quite scenic and it's horrifying to think such a beautiful spot was the site of over 1,100 deaths.

12:00 - Went back to Ala Moana, and checked out the Abercrombie & Fitch store. Although the last week has reduced my build a little, I sadly do not fit their XL t-shirt size and the XXL is way too big. The music and staff in this store are very young and hip - even compared to the Gap store next door - and it was one of the few places I encountered genuine friendliness (especially when the girls found out I was Australian). Walked around window-shopping for a while, went to a food supermarket and ended up with a (hard, non-juicy) nectarine, a lump of (stale) bread and a very nice blackcurrant mineral water. The Vitamin Water (click top right circle, then Vitamin Water, then a bottle down bottom to see the labels) had cute, silly labels that reminded me a lot of Nudie juice back home.

13:45 - Got the Route 52 Wahiawa Circle Route, which basically follows the Kamehameha (KAM-ay-ham-AY-ha) highway up the centre then along the North Shore and down the east coast. For information's sake (it confused the hell out of me until the driver explained it), the 52 and 55 are the same route but the 52 goes clockwise and the 55 goes anticlockwise.

The first part of the journey was a bit strange as an old black guy from Cincinnati who lives on the North Shore was trying to give us all rum, beer and peanuts and even weed, and he had a habit of talking very loudly. There was a couple of loud, middle-aged tourists in our section as well. After what seemed an eternity getting out the west side of Honolulu via Dillingham Blvd and the freeway, we passed over some very beautiful spots but I couldn't photograph them due to the bus's speed. The towns of Mililani and Wahiawa are pretty much urban residential, although looked nicer than Honolulu.

15:15 - Got out at the Dole Plantation. I was told this was a must-see, but when I got there it was full of tourbuses and very expensive merchandise. As I planned to be back in Honolulu by sunset (~7pm), I could only spend half an hour there, so didn't get to do the pineapple maze, but I did photograph some pineapples and some landscape shots nearby on the road.

15:45 - Onward to Haleiwa (which looked a lot like both Margaret River, WA and Lorne, VIC - surf towns for the non-Australian-initiated) and then to Waimea, which another tourist had told me was a must-see. This time, they were right about something. For probably the first time since arriving in Hawaii, I've found a place which is genuinely enjoyable and fascinating, split between the awesome surf beach on Waimea Bay and the river and rainforest starting very close inland and working outwards. I got some amazing shots - was an excellent way to wrap up my Hawaii trip.

17:45 - Left Waimea Bay, which had started to heat up quite suddenly, and we drove down the east coast of Oahu, which reminded me of the Great Ocean Road from Anglesea to Apollo Bay back home, except the vegetation was greener and lush and the path was neither as windy nor as hilly.

19:45 - Arrived back in Honolulu, bussed back to Waikiki and ate at the 7/11 again. I made a point of getting a 2L bottle of spring water as I was completely dehydrated.

20:35 - I arrived back at the hotel, where they let me use a courtesy room for 30 minutes to shower and go to the loo. From then until 22:30, I sat in the hotel lobby repacking my baggage, attending to my many and varied insect bites, and frantically trying to locate my Canadian currency which I appeared to have lost, but had just hidden rather too well as it turned out.

22:30 - Got the Airport Island Shuttle back to the airport. The airport is an amazingly open building with little airconditioning - a bit strange for a tourist resort with so much money. Considering how paranoid the US are about security, I was able to view my Air Canada plane as it was loading, with 10m and no glass whatsoever separating me from it. I finished the night talking to some other travellers from Australia and Canada and enjoying a Kauai icecream courtesy of the icecream bar, the only thing still open in the airport.

It is hard to explain, but as I was sitting on the plane waiting to take off, this feeling of intense happiness and excitement grabbed me. I was actually on a plane to Vancouver! I had been planning this for over a year, and now it is but hours away.

01:20 Mon 26th - Left Honolulu Airport aboard Air Canada flight AC034. We drove nearly 5km along various runways and the like before we finally took off - in the meantime having to endure the safety video in both English and French. I slept for the first part of the flight after watching CBC Inflight News.

**Note** About the times on my entries - the times I type in in bold are local times as indicated, but the time and date on the blog itself is ALWAYS GMT+8, i.e. Perth time. Sorry to any people this has confused.

Day 6-7 - Honolulu (Whine)

Sunday 23 July 2004, 19:30 Hawaii time (GMT-10)

(Edited 29/7/04, to take a bit of the 'sting' out of it)

Can someone please get me out of this island paradise?

I feel really bad saying this in a way, but I promised at the start that this would be an honest summary of how I feel about my holiday as well as just a summary of what I did, and to say I am enjoying myself would be wrong. This is a bit of a rant and rave, because I can't honestly see now why everyone rants and raves about Hawaii and the beach at Waikiki. Maybe I'm just trying to set the record straight, or just building a bridge and getting over it by writing about it so I can get on and enjoy the rest of my holiday. If I sound too whiney, don't worry, I'll be over it in a day or two :)

Eating and drinking
The 7-11 is the best place to eat in Waikiki. You can get fresh sushi (when they have it), cheap spring water and other goodies. Fresh food is hard to get elsewhere and is usually imported from the mainland, so is not fresh at all.

Restaurants - apart from the breakfast I have had each morning (which is still fried), most food here is expensive. Even Subway costs more here than back in Australia. They don't have Cadbury's chocolate, and the US alternative, Hersheys, just doesn't cut it - it honestly tastes like the cooking chocolate back home. Fast food is in. Deep fried is in. Fresh is out.

Sometimes I am forced to realise how lucky we have it.

Climate
Coming here in the middle of summer was not my brightest idea. It has been consistently hot and consistently humid. My health is suffering for it, as I've lost so much fluid and even drinking lots of water hasn't helped much. Also, in this sort of weather, your head goes a little bit, and I've lost my mobile phone twice (found it again both times) and my Oahu map (sadly didn't find it). The mozzies are having a field day with my legs - I've now got about 25 bites in different places - although I think they are biting at night in my hotel room.

People and Language
People here are Hawaiian - only the tourists are American. Quite a few Hawaiians don't speak very good English, yet work in jobs where they're basically expected to. This isn't their fault, but it still annoys me when I can't communicate with the person I'm trying to buy from. As for the Americans, they can't understand me either. I have to speak with an American accent sometimes in order to be understood. And that's not to mention all the language differences between US English and Australian/most of rest of world English that causes problems. (Note this is not a critique of Americans generally, more the middle-aged package tourist types who come to Hawaii dressed in wild shirts).

Also, in Hawaii, despite the above, it's very clear you're in a bit of America. The food is middle-class American, the language is American, the people possess very little understanding of any kind of world outside America (and, often, only their part of America), and I needn't labour the point as others have extensively. I get the feeling that some older Americans, most likely there on package tours their travel agent arranged for them, look down on me because I am Australian and get around in my own clothes and in my own way. With service people, I've had to put on an American accent at times as they don't understand me - even though Canadians, who have a similar accent, understand me clearly. I also have to speak in Fahrenheit and miles, which gets annoying after converting about 4 different things.

Day 5 - In transit

Saturday 24 July 2004, 14:30 NZST (GMT+12)
Current view: A nice, but very stationary, mountain and harbour outside my plane window.

I certainly hope that events like today's don't recur during my trip, although I guess there's almost a certainty they will at least once. I got up at 6am, had a lovely motel breakfast, then left at 8:20am aboard the Airbus. I arrived at 9:02am at the airport, got my boarding pass at 9:57am after a long queue.

I should add here that Auckland International Airport charges a NZ$25 departure tax per person which cannot be paid overseas or by a travel agent, and you can't depart without paying it. They put a sticker on the back of your boarding pass. Just as well I had $30 in my pocket :P

Anyway, the board said boarding at 11:05, which for a flight departing at 11:50, was fair enough. This then changed to 12:25, and then 13:05. By 13:05, the passengers were getting restless - and I'd bought myself an oversized thin-base pizza slice and a Diet Coke for prices not atypical of airports - and there was still no sign of anything happening. Several announcements apologised for delays, but gave no details. I phoned the taxi I'd arranged in Hawaii to let them know of the delay. Finally at 13:55, boarding commenced. 20 mins later, we were all ready to leave and the announcement was made that the captain was doing final documentation and we'd be given clearance for takeoff soon. However, that was not to be - the little loader loading our luggage onto the plane has apparently spilled fluid (water or oil? not sure) onto the tarmac and they reckon it will take 25 minutes to clean. Grr. It's a beautiful day outside, too.

Saturday 24 July 2004, 03:30 Hawaii time (GMT-10)

I am now in my hotel room in Hawaii sweating like anything. It is apparently 31°C at the moment (I'm getting used to all these Fahrenheit conversions).

The plane took off at 14:55. We had two really nice meals - chicken cordon bleu and calzone, each with salad, cheese and dessert - and watched three movies. My partner in crime for the 8.5 hour flight was Logan, a boy from Aspen, Colorado, who I exchanged info about Hawaii, NZ and Australia with. A flight of this length would be miserable without interesting company, and usually I've scored lucky on my national and international haulage. For movies, we got Hidalgo, 10 minutes of Mooseport dubbed into Japanese (ended by demand from passengers), 50 First Dates and Jersey Girl (again).

Arrival at US Customs took a while because of the queue but was both friendlier and easier than I expected. Walking outside, though, was an experience - from 13 in Auckland to 31 and humid in Honolulu in a jacket and trackpants (both necessary both in Auckland weather and for transporting small items safely) was quite a shock to the system. I'd got some insect bites in Auckland and these now really started to itch. My taxi arrived, but the security guy (who was apparently new) was hassling him over some registration issue, which turned out to be a non-issue, and I felt a bit caught in the middle. Honolulu's H1 freeway is a really nicely maintained road, and the driver seemed amused by my fascination with right-side driving and all the weird disappearing lanes.

My hotel in Waikiki is huge (and cheap, thanks to PlacesToStay.com) - 44 storeys in all. I'm paying about the same for this hotel room as you would for a decent Perth or Melbourne motel room. I arrived at 3:00am and after 10 minutes waiting, was sent to an 11th floor room that turned out (on one whiff) to be a smoking room. I came down and reminded them of my non-smoking stipulation on the booking, and got a 7th floor room which is really nice and is on a corner so has both a south and east view. Despite being only 3 blocks from the beach, though, there's that many skyscraper hotels here that you can't see beyond the next two or three.

I'm going to have a shower with aloe vera and aqueous cream, plug the bath while doing so, then have a nice relaxing bath before bed.

Saturday 24 July 2004, 18:50 Hawaii time

Sitting in a cool, airconditioned net cafe not that far from Waikiki - just returned from walking from Honolulu downtown. In order, the events of today:

4:00 - Bath.
4:45 - Abandoned plan to sleep and went out exploring the hotels of Waikiki looking for a decent map. Found a semi-decent one.
5:30 - Watched the sunrise on Waikiki Beach.
6:15 - Had a quick nasty breakfast for US$3.39 at a fast food outlet called Jack In The Box which, judging from the number of outlets here, is more popular here than McDonalds (I have yet to see a Burger King, and have seen one (1) KFC, near Ala Moana shops).
8:00 - Got a Hersheys bar, a Tootsie Roll and a decent map of Oahu at a small discount supermarket 3 blocks from my hotel. The roads are chronically dug up around here.
9:00 - After a walk around the Ala Wai Canal and neighbouring boulevard (reminds me of some of the riverside drives around inner Melbourne, and Riverside Drive in Perth), I had a proper breakfast at my hotel for just US$8, went to bed for a while.

13:00 - Woke up and walked to Ala Moana Shopping Centre. It is big, quite open, and not particularly well air-conditioned, but the shops are awesome. I checked out The Gap and Abercrombie & Fitch - and the food court is just enormous beyond belief. Saw a local band called Mixed Nutz playing live in the middle of the centre - they did a fantastic cover of Chevelle's "Send The Pain Below" as well as some of their own songs. I talked to some band members and their manager after the event, and even scored a free CD :D They deserve to do well, I hope they do.15:20 - Got a bus to Honolulu Downtown. It's actually quite beautiful, if somewhat ignored - the place looked empty when I was there, and most things were closed. I took a few awesome photos - hope they work out! Had Subway for dinner - US$3.99.
16:20 - Started walking back to Waikiki. At present I'm about 9 blocks from it.

Couple of notes about this place:

1. The right-side driving is very confusing for me, as I've never been out of left-side drive countries. I've created a rule for checking that I'll try to keep in mind - Near Left, Far Right (it's exactly the opposite in Australia, where you'd first look right when crossing). At least with four words in a logical processing order, I should be able to survive the next 9 weeks :P The weirdest thing for me was seeing cars turning left on roads with no median strip - it looked almost like the Melbourne hook turns until I realised it's just a mirror image of our own roads.

2. Money.

(a) I ALWAYS convert in my head back to AU$ to determine whether a deal is a good deal or not.

(b) They add 4% or so tax onto the displayed price - it's a great way of getting rid of cent change that builds up though.

(c) Change is exact here - they have 1c, 5c, 10c and 25c pieces, and $1, $5, $10, $20 and $100 notes:
- 1c (One Cent) is copper and about the size of our (Aus/NZ) 5c.
- 5c (One Nickel) is silver and a bit bigger.
- 10c (One Dime) is silver and almost exactly the same size as the 1c. Confusing!
- 25c (Quarter Dollar) is silver and slightly larger than our (Aus/NZ) 10c.

(d) Most things are sold by the pound. Multiply by 2.2 to get kg. Petrol is sold by the gallon - around here about 246c/gal seems about right. Aus$1/L ~= NZ$1.10/L ~= US$2.65/gal.

3. Newspapers cost about 50c here - far less than in Australia.

4. As in NZ where I observed Maori in most service occupations, here you see big Hawaiian dudes all over the place keeping the economy and security industry going. I had trouble initially telling Japanese and some of the Hawaiians apart, but I've learned how to tell the difference in facial features/eye shape - it is subtle.

Anyway, enough writing for now. I'm going to go watch the sunset.

Day 3-4 - Auckland

Friday 23 July, 10:47pm NZST

What a busy couple of days it's been! I'm writing this just before I go back to my B&B, sleep, and then leave for my plane. Last 12 hours in the Southern Hemisphere until October...

I couldn't sleep after finishing my last post on Wed night, so took a long walk at about 2am (Thursday morning) around the city, basically following Customs Street to the harbour bridge (which has no pedestrian access, sadly), up Jacob's Ladder (nowhere near as long as Perth's at Cliff Street or Burt Way, but still tiring nonetheless!) and back along Victoria Street. I was amazed at how many things in the city were still open. Ended up eating a quite diverse combination for $8 at an Arab kebab shop in Customs Street with some British backpackers.

Woke up late on Thursday, and had decided to go on a volcano tour of Auckland with a geologist at 1pm, so didn't do much other than get wet while trying to find food. I have, however, now acquired a sling bag! This has greatly assisted me in getting around.

The approximately four-hour tour, run by Murray Baker of GeoTours, would have to be one of the best tours in value for money terms that I've ever had. I hope to get up some of my pics soon but there is some good ones and a review on this page. Auckland's metropolitan area is literally built on a field of volcanoes, many of which are still in a technical sense active, and there's plenty to see - but it's easy to just see these things and entirely miss the significance of what they mean. It's also easy to forget that volcanos aren't just mountains with craters in them (although plenty exist and this tour took me to a fair few of them) - there are all kinds of craters and formations which are just as important. I would highly recommend this tour to anyone, especially if you like being an independent traveller like myself and find yourself in a place where you can study up close the incredible power lying just underneath our earth's crust.

After the tour's conclusion I met up with Mark, who I also met on the net in 1994. Unlike Shannon, however, we haven't been in contact in the time in between, so it was a wide-scale catch-up. We have both spent considerable periods in the IT industry and had great fun trading stories about our experiences.

On the way home, I met a busker named James who plays acoustic guitar and sings across the road on Queen Street near Wellesley, just outside the Civic Theatre. First busker I'd come across in my time in Auckland - surprising as Melbourne, Perth and Sydney all have heaps - but he was seriously good. Any of us around at the time got to hear acoustic versions of RATM's "Killing In The Name", Metallica's "Wherever I May Roam", and songs by Pearl Jam, Sepultura, Simon & Garfunkel, Weezer, Incubus, and a range of others. After he was finished we walked back to Britomart and had a good chat.

One thing I have always loved about travelling is the opportunity to meet a range of people, and I've certainly done that here. Auckland is a very friendly and outgoing city, and I do hope to come here again soon - it's so easy to thanks to the new airlines opening up between Australia and NZ, and the fact NZ Immigration treats me like a local here.

Today was boring from the blog-report point of view - I wanted to get some information from the library while here, and spent some time doing that. Afterwards, I went up the Sky Tower, stopping on the way to watch some gravity-defying bungying on Albert Street. They had these two pylons mounted at about 80-100m with these straps coming down, and this ball thing which two people could sit in. It was psycho - especially in the middle of the city!

The Sky Tower observation area reminded me a great deal of the Rialto Towers in Melbourne. It was great - I'd waited for a clear day to do this, and was glad I did, as the views were fantastic. I got some great shots of One Tree Hill and the Devonport area. One slightly different thing the shape of the building allowed them to do was to put some small areas of glass flooring in at the edges. I do not recommend standing on these and looking down if your stomach is at all delicate.

After this, it was back to the B&B (Aspen House), where I socialised with some other travellers - some people from northern NSW and a guy from Florida - watched an episode of the Simpsons, and ate microwaved Watties vegies and the remains of a baguette I'd bought earlier at Foodtown - a fitting closing dinner to my Auckland experience.

Despite the traffic and the steep hills, I am going to miss this place when I fly away tomorrow. It's been an adventure and I've enjoyed nearly all of it. Honolulu, here I come...

Andy's Survival Guide to Auckland

Following up from my successful (!?) guides to Sydney and Launceston, here's my tips for surviving the biggest city of our near neighbour.

1. Never assume anything with traffic. Be on watch always, particularly at five-way intersections where you can't even see two of the entrances because they're on a steep incline, don't jaywalk (it can get you killed), and in particular watch trucks. Three safe rules are:

i. If a truck is turning and looks like it'll end up rolling over you, it probably will.
ii. If a car has a green light or arrow to go (this is often the case even when you have a green man), it probably will, even if it *should* stop for you.
iii. If in doubt, run quickly enough that no car is likely to hit you.

(EDIT) How to manage at traffic lights - If you hear a long buzzing sound with the green man, just go anyway. This buzz means the light has stopped all traffic going in your direction. But be quick!

2. Food and water are safe here, but buy them from places where people speak English. Auckland has many Asian migrants who, due to the wholesale absorption of their culture, have never found a need to learn English. If an Asian shopkeeper asks you "Um wuh, huh?", it's sort of like "May I help you?" If you point at things, they will tell you what they cost, but they could be different to the marked price.

3. Learn to eat sushi and/or kebabs if you don't already. You will be hungry or out of pocket otherwise. :P

Day 1-2 - Auckland

Well, I've been here just 39 hours but it feels like a hell of a lot longer - mainly because I've been so busy! My impressions of Auckland are evolving as my experience does. At first, I felt completely lost and was wondering why on earth I'd come here. This wasn't helped by the bitterly cold, humid and overcast weather for most of yesterday. However, over the two days, I've seen a lot of amazing stuff and the weather has drastically improved. Oh, and I'd now recognise the Auckland skyline and in particular the Sky Tower if I saw it anywhere. The Sky Tower rather over-features in the photos I've taken. I hope to go up it sometime in the next couple of days.

Photos are still to come - I got them off my digital camera tonight, but am not able to do much with them until I can shrink them a bit and do some editing on them.

Wednesday 21 July, 10:30pm (NZST)

Since writing the last post, I wandered aimlessly around Auckland, assisted greatly once I acquired the Kiwi Minimap 2005 street directory for Auckland for just $15 at Dymocks. I've personally found it invaluable and it's still the cheapest directory I've seen anywhere. My only complaint is that the scale's a bit confusing - a few millimetres on the map is about 100m, so something that looks only a short distance ends up being a half hour walk. Still, I shouldn't complain - there's no question that my getting around is improving my fitness.

My wanderings ended me up at Karangahape Road (K Road to the locals), which apparently used to be a red light district but has become something of a Chinatown. My general observation of Auckland is that, unlike Australian cities which have absorbed and adapted European culture, Auckland has actually done the same with Asian and Polynesian culture. There is no shortage of sushi bars, Korean restaurants and kebab bazars - in fact, more of them than anything else, even in the more working-class areas.

Hearing somewhere that travelling extensively on public transport in the first day gives you more of an overview of a place, and feeling tired anyway, I decided to go to Otahuhu (even the locals disagree on pronunciation), a station in southeast Auckland which is on both the east and south train lines, by the east (scenic) line and return by the south (motorway) line. City centres are often quite sanitised places and this would give me an opportunity to see the suburbs.

This excursion led to at least two additions to my Survival Guide (see next entry) and exploring a working-class suburb. Think big containers piled up everywhere, and trucks that act as if the road laws do not exist. One thing I have observed about Auckland is that people are generally very friendly, and this place was no exception. I walked the Portage Road, a 0.9km road over which a group of Maori at some stage dragged their canoes from one waterway to another opposite.

On travelling back via train, we got stuck just out of Newmarket station as a signal was broken, and ended up waiting more than 30 minutes in total across 3 stops to get back to Britomart (the central station). I was somewhat concerned that no-one else seemed to think this was even odd or anything more than a minor inconvenience. I suspect that these sort of oddities are not unusual - it's a pity, considering they are actually really nice trains comparable with the Perth/Brisbane ones. The train stations, apart from the central ones, reminded me of country airstrips, with rocks sprayed on and a small concrete edifice sufficing as the platform. They were spectacularly badly located - the train journeys seemed to go through industrial areas rather than areas where people actually live, work and shop. Britomart, a nice, modern, multilevel station that reminds me of a couple in Melbourne, was completely empty when we arrived back. When I told several Aucklanders of my experience, I got quizzical looks and was asked why on earth I didn't use the bus.

Feeling a bit dispirited, I decided to try out the Auckland ferry system, apparently one of the best in the world. Auckland doesn't have a river - it has harbours, and many people work on one side and live on the other, and the Auckland Harbour Bridge kind of goes to a different bit (the Northern Motorway joins Northcote and Birkenhead with central Auckland - a bit hard if you live in Devonport, just 4km from Auckland but at least 15km from Birkenhead). For ferries that are just public transport, they were incredibly luxurious - the top level contained a bar selling soft drinks and potato chips and had two outside viewing areas, and the bottom level had a coke machine. They even had toilets! Not bad for a ferry where the average journey length is 10 minutes. My idea once arriving in Devonport was to catch a bus to Takapuna (a major urban centre in the North Shore) and see Lake Pupuke, which I'd heard somewhere on the net was good.

However, Auckland's weather stepped in to make sure this would not be. It started raining on the bus journey, and was so miserable by the time I reached Takapuna that I just ran across the road and caught the same bus back! From what little I saw though, I decided that I was definitely coming back on a better day to see it. It's amazing comparing Otahuhu with Devonport. The North Shore is a lot more like its equivalent in Sydney, or with the Stirling Highway suburbs in Perth (Mosman Park, Claremont, Nedlands). It is amazing to think just a week ago I walked from Claremont to Perth and did Jacob's Ladder - it already seems way longer than that. On the bus, I met a friendly local boy who chatted with me about music, Australia vs New Zealand, his acting and musical aspirations, and uni life. I think often it is easy to look at and see what is different and forget about what is basically the same.

A note about language here. NZ English is often stereotyped by Australians - my observation has been that while working-class and rural people do speak that way, it's a lot less noticeable in Auckland, the biggest Polynesian city in the world. In fact, some people here are very difficult to tell from Australians. Word-use wise, though, NZ English does differ in some ways - calling the central area (what we call 'town' or 'CBD') 'downtown', for example, or calling a mobile phone a 'cellphone' as Canadians and Americans do, but calling the freeway a motorway as the British do. We're still understood here if we speak our language though :)

Finished off the rather rainy evening by meeting my friend Shannon, who I first met on the net way back in 1994. We had a great time looking for somewhere to eat, eating and then driving around various regions of Auckland checking out the sights while trying not to get wet, and lots of catching up. Was great. :) Got back at 1am and went to bed pretty much straight away.

Slept in, unfortunately - two nights of almost no sleep followed by a busy day caught up with me. Hence I missed the B&B's breakfast menu, and ended up going to a nearby Foodtown to buy tempura and bread rolls, which I ate on the Devonport ferry while enjoying a spectacular view of Waitemata Harbour. The sushi counters at Auckland supermarkets actually sell real sushi that you see the sushi guy freshly making before your eyes - it's quite something. Foodtown (the retail arm of giant Foodland) is the only major supermarket after buying out rival Woolworths NZ (not related to the Australian one), although you see New World stores (are these ex-Coles New World? anyone know?) in a few places.

As for the rest of the day, I went to:

- North Head, a dormant volcano near Devonport which was formerly a navy defence post (as per most volcanoes in Auckland) and had active guns as recently as 1996. Was great fun climbing all over the place and down tunnels, and the views of Rangitoto Island (one of Auckland's dominant features) and the city and Mt Victoria were great.
- Bayswater, a harbour suburb a bit further up, where houses sell for close to NZ$1 million. Like many suburbs of its kind, as referenced previously, the landscaping and house design is excessive, but the end result doesn't look bad. Despite this, as in many parts of Auckland, the roads are poorly maintained.
- Takapuna, a small city in itself with some great Asian cafes, traffic snarls, a pretty cool shell beach, and, of course, Lake Pupuke. It was quite impressive and I ended up spending sunset there. I got chased away by an entire flock of birds, however, who decided that as I had no food, I was of no use to them. :P

Spent the evening talking to a few people who rang me (I have a prepaid number for NZ by the way - if you get a weird SMS from a number starting +6421036, it's probably it) and processing my photos and typing these entries at the net cafe.

Food, budget and other stuff

So far, I have spent NZ$199 in general expenses (about A$180, not including bank fees). This includes food, water, net cafes, souvenirs, the prepaid phone and calling cards, street directory, transport, and the Airbus. Some of these are one-off, the transport is a set cost, and the Airbus actually includes the return ticket. Identified ways of saving money include getting a "sling bag" which I can take out with me, which would allow me to take up to 2.4L of tap water on my journeys, as Auckland tap water is quite drinkable.

Food so far:

19 Jul - Dinner - Plane dinner
20 Jul - Breakfast - At the B&B
20 Jul - Lunch - Subway @ K Road
20 Jul - Dinner - Happy Hippo (Chinese pick-by-numbers in Wellesley Street) with Shannon
21 Jul - Lunch - Tempura and bread rolls from Foodtown supermarket
21 Jul - Dinner - Japanese meal at Mansun restaurant, Takapuna

Day 1 - Auckland

Tuesday 20 July, 1am (some timezone somewhere)
 
Now flying from Perth to Auckland aboard Air NZ flight NZ176 (departs 19:30, arrives 05:50). This is a 6hr 20min flight with a 4 hour timezone jump, and feels every bit of it. Various bits of me are already feeling dreadful. We are watching Laws of Attraction and Jersey Girl. I can't say I'd watch either if I had the choice, but they're not the worst I've seen on a trip (I think "Race the Sun" starring Corey Affleck, Ben's younger brother, on a bus from Bunbury to Perth in 1998 would be it - his acting was the saving grace, but the plot sucked!)
 
A few notes about the last few days. On Sunday, Dad's car broke down chronically, which hampered things considerably. I basically had several things to take care of - buying a shaver (mine broke ages ago), banking a heap of money so I'd have accessible money on my trip, hassling Global Plus in Fitzgerald Street about my Belgrade-Istanbul ticket, renewing my YHA/HI membership and getting the vouchers for the Singapore Stopover package. I did all except the last in 45 minutes, and entirely on foot. I'm glad it was a beautiful fine day and I was fit. :P
 
Dad got a loan car at the last minute (quite a nice one too) so we managed to get to the airport, albeit somewhat later than expected - only 1hr 15min before the plane left! Thankfully, everything was very routine - I was an Australian citizen going to New Zealand and had nothing to declare, and everyone was very friendly at the three or so desks I had to go through. I'm glad that I don't buy duty free in airports though. The flat trapezoid box of Lindt chocolates you can buy in any Target or Kmart store for $2.99 cost $5.30 tax free, the alcohol looked expensive, and I don't see anyone paying $125 for a heap of chocolate macadamia nuts, even if a "free" $30 cabin bag is included in the deal.
 
The Air NZ plane was a little old/dilapidated, but still quite comfortable. I got a window seat and have seen an awesome skyline of Perth, a view over Hobart as we went over that, and some awesome stars on a clear sky. According to the information displayed on the monitors between the movies, we maintained an average altitude of 11,300m, the avg temperature outside was -53 deg C, and avg speed was 925 km/h. At takeoff, the speed was 327km/h.
 
I tried to sleep on the plane, but not very successfully - I did get some sleep but I hope I get much more tonight to make up for it.
 
9:53am, NZST (5:53am Perth time)
 
I've arrived safely in Auckland - the adventure has well and truly started. Arrived on time at 5:50am - it was pitch black and 5C. After ages of going through one counter after another, I got my luggage almost immediately, then got the bus outside (NZ$22 return).
 
Side note - New Zealand has really nice looking currency - if I get time and a suitable range of notes I'll try to get a picture of it. They have $1 and $2 coins like Australia do, but the $2 is about the size of our 20c coin, and they're made out of a lighter material.
 
The bus took us up a pretty non-interesting motorway, then through the inner southern suburbs into the city centre, and then all around it. Auckland feels like an Australian city, yet just isn't for reasons that are hard to pin down. The roads look very similar, although some signs are different. Thing that hit me immediately is that Auckland is a lot more cosmopolitan than other cities that I've been to - most notably, I notice Maori in just about every service occupation here, and "sushi and sake" cafes everywhere. Fuel is more expensive (it is weird seeing 121.5 on a fuel station, but keep in mind to divide by 1.1 for the currency conversion). As for getting around, the city centre seems REALLY busy, and a disproportionate amount of it is built on completely unlikely hills.
 
My accommodation, Aspen Lodge ($50 a night inc breakfast and shared facilities) is actually really nice. My stay in NZ definitely isn't going to be wanting in the comfort department :P
 
This city is too hard to navigate without a street directory, so I've acquired one. Hopefully getting lost every time I leave Queen Street (the main drag in Auckland) won't be too hard.
 
I'll update again in a few days.