New Zealand Trip Day 1 - Auckland: Devonport, Toi O Tamaki

Auckland 

Devonport, Toi O Tamaki Art Gallery

So.... due to a stupid mistake on Nomad Fat Camel's side, Joyce and I had to check-out our room by 10am and can only have another room at 3pm. And they didn't even try to be apologetic. Kind of like expecting that we will 'understand' =.=. I wouldn't have minded that much but my towel and underwear were still super wet and they had no place for me to dry. And our luggage were kept in a storage room already so I couldn't just toss them in a plastic bag with my luggage. It was such a small matter and I don't know why, but I felt very desperate at the time.

Anywayyy, J and TY reached at 10:30am and we were out by 11am. Our first destination was......Devonport!

It was quite the perfect place for the first destination. You ride a 10 minute ferry to get there so you have some sea breeze in your face, you get to see Auckland from a nice angle.. in short, you feel like you really are going somewhere! 

I don't know how to describe Devonport. A very nice place for a stroll? You get to walk along the beach, go up a small hill, walk around in a quaint town. Okay, Devonport is a very nice place for a stroll. 

My heart ached every time I see a potential background for cam-whore.....and I could only just walk by.

And here I present you... Knitty Graffiti a.k.a New Zealand's graffiti!
 Instead of splashing paints and writing obscene things, they knit stuff and wear them on columns lol. Super cute.

Here's a proper description.

Btw I don't know why but some photos look squashed after I upload them. Blogspot is being stupid. Why are they making the photos look fat.

And they all have different themes. This one is forest-y.

Under the sea～ under the sea～

*The only way I can make them look 'unsquashed' and normal is by putting them on x-large size. But when I do that they become rotated (。-_-。)  

Our first meal! Fish and chips. On paper lol. We were like the green aliens in Toy Story going "ooohhhhhh" when we saw this. The owner of the shop was Korean fyi, Oya, another reason I don't feel out of place in NZ is because there are so. many. Asians. And their own aboriginal people who had dark skin tone. It felt like Malaysia. Even the weather is similar to Malaysia's! Just crazier. Like it would suddenly rain, then stop after 3 minutes. Or it would rain with the sun still shining super strong.

Do you SEE it? Yes, a freaking rainbow decided to make an appearance not 3 meters away from us! Everyone went "Where's the pot of gold??!!" It was my first time seeing a natural rainbow so up-close. So if it suddenly drizzles when you are on your trip in nz, don't fret. Look around and you might spot a rainbow :) !

Here's a photo of me with the rainbow. 

Can't see the rainbow? No problem, I took the liberty to make it easier for you guys. ↓↓ 

The tide was very low so it was a view that I was unfamiliar with.

Our first high moment together!! J and TY  were really low at first. Tired from the flight? I love J's face expression. She has so many expressions that I have never seen before XD.

leng ma??

proof that J is a pervert

I wanted to finish the whole walk which includes going up another small peak and Church Street but the others got tired so we got back to the city center and went to an art gallery that was quite recommended in tripadvisor.

まあまあ for me. More interesting than normal art gallery. We contemplated between the museum and this art gallery. But the museum can only be reached by bus from where we stay plus the entrance needed money so we voted for this one instead.

My favorite painting～

I like how the gold color looks so gold lol. Also like how the frock looks like it really has many folds.

Please give me a few more years and art galleries and then I'll try to give better expressions. 

According to Joyce I should look at the painting, try to guess what it means first then baru read the  explanation.

It was near 5pm when we finished the gallery. It gets dark around 6pm  :(. I wanted to go Cornwall Park but J preferred to just walk around the shops. Joyce and TY ok with both. The lady at the art gallery said it would be dark by the time we get to the Cornwall Park and then proceed to give us the stupidest suggestion: that we take just ride and stay in the bus for a loop around Auckland. It took nearly 2 hours orz.

Realize it was a mistake when J and TY dozed off the moment we got on the bus . Poor things. Would have been better if they had taken our offer to shower and refresh a bit before going out. Anyway there wasn't really anything to see AND we took the wrong direction so it was well past 6 when the bus passed by Cornwall Park area. I originally thought I could just go down by myself and meet up with the rest at the hostel later. Too bad. 

Daylight is so damn precious in NZ during autumn. Museums and all those closes at 5pm. Shops closes around 7pm. So basically there's nothing you can do after that.

Oya, the hostel gives free dinner/snack from 7-8pm and we made it in time. Guess what it is?

Fish and chips lol.

Is that detergent?

Is that dish-washing liquid?

No.

It's milk!

　
All milk in nz are in this packaging :)

$$$$$
Nomad Fat Camels Backpackers NZ$20
1 day pass for ferry/train/bus NZ$16
fish&chips lunch NZ$6

New Zealand Trip Day 0 - Auckland

New Zealand Trip

I welcome you to New Zealand,

the home of rainbows (you shall see), 

the land where sheeps outnumber the people,

the country where you can just oops-i-accidentally-pressed-the-shutter-but-oh-look-at-the-fabulous-photo-it-turned-out-to-be.

When I first came to Japan I decided that I should travel the countries near Japan to make full use of my location. So even though i have traveled to a number of countries before (or so i feel), New Zealand is actually my first ang moh country. *excited* d(*・ω・*)b♪.

 These are the members. From left: Tang Yii, Joann, me :), and dear Joyce. All three of them are my course's 2 year older seniors.

 Here's a representative photo of New Zealand. Mountainous, very fresh looking green grass, and of course, sheep.... everywhere. BUT i did NOT see any pretty black-and-white cows as advertised in tvs ever since i was little. Fernleaf, you LIAR! *sobs*

It took me 1.5 days to actually reach Auckland from Japan . It's not supposed to take this long but I chose the cheapest flight which consisted of 2 transfer, one at Taipei and another at Sydney (i only found out on the plane). But what I thought would be a painfully long flight turned out to be quite pleasant.

First of all, i was lucky enough to stumble across an extremely wonderful transfer lounge at Taoyuan Airport. It had couches where you can just lie down and sleep (and no one will scold you), lots of power outlets for you to charge your stuff, free water, a corner with computers where you can sit down comfortably (you have to stand at other lounges when you use the computers), a dark area with a movie playing on the screen anddddd.... free shower rooms!

 I think the free shower saved me. i felt a lot more genki after refreshing myself. All you have to do is ask for the key at the nearby cafe and they will even give you a clean towel and a set of kiehls' samples! I have heard of kiehls before but i thought it was a guy's brand and i never paid much attention to it but i really liked it! Note that the shower room had a dressing room big enough for you to bring your luggage with you! 

fyi it's located at Terminal 1. 

Aaaand secondly, i really enjoyed the movies in the plane. It probably has been a year since i watched any. Not to mention the food was decent. I have been travelling with low cost airline for so long that i have forgotten how it is with normal airlines. 

I met a few people on the way. There was a very good-natured but gepo Taiwan aunty sitting beside me who kept dishing out useless advice. And during the transfer at Sydney airport, another taiwan aunty got stopped at the scan place because she had a thermos with water in it. The customs people told her to either drink all the water or throw it. She looked absolutely shocked because there was almost a liter there and the thermos was brand new so she couldn't do either one. She panicked and a few Taiwanese around her tried to help but they all couldn't really speak English so i intervened a bit. And the aunty got to throw away the water in the toilet and come back. The whole thing was actually just a very small thing but the aunty looked absolutely traumatized. 

"Where's my bag??? The customs people still has my bag!!" 

"It's okay. Don't worry. They will give back de."

Poor thing. Makes me think that my own mum would have probably panicked like that, too. Oh well, my good deed for the day. Yay! A middle-aged American man also spoke to me when i was eating at the food court. He taught me a few things about life (which i have forgotten by now). Travelling alone really makes one a lot approachable.

I haven't reached my destination yet but i already feel like i'm on an adventure lol. 

So... here i am in Auckland! Didn't feel any exuberant joy that i thought i would experience.

 I changed just 5000yen at the airport because the rate was bad. Travelex (a money exchange company) was the worst and i managed to find this shop where the person was decent and didn't give me cold looks for only changing so little.

The airport bus was NZ$16 btw. And i regret not buying the return ticket which only costed NZ$28. Save NZ$4. 

The woman at the bus ticket booth told me which stop i should get off so i found my way to the hostel quite easily. Being in an english-speaking country really calm my nerves a lot.

A harbour. Our hostel is located at the city center so all of these are within 10mins of walk.

Britomart Station. The main station for trains and bus(?). It was closed already but there was a corner with lots of brochures on travelling in nz :).

A bunch of policemen who were jaywalking to the other side of the road when the traffic lights were red. Then one of them suddenly turned back and approached me and i was like "Oh my god, did they catch me taking a picture of them? Did i break any rules already?" The guy then suddenly held out his arm.. as in signalling me to hold it =.=

Now that i think back, maybe they were just a bunch of people cosplaying for clubbing or something lol.

Everything closed around 7pm even at the heart of the city. It was 9pm when i started my stroll so it wasn't long before i returned to my hostel.

Joyce reached at midnight. We had a nice long chat until i know if i keep her up any longer she will fall asleep on the spot XD.

Joann and Tang Yii are reaching tomorrow morning!