Up I Go

Hills, hills, hills, and more hills. Auckland has them absolutely everywhere. People tell themselves they are getting use to them but I think it’s all lies! Haha, the climb to my apartment up Wakefield Street makes me quiver a bit thinking about it. This could be because I have absolutely zero hiking experience and North Carolina is as flat as a board in comparison. One day a group of us decided to do some walking through Auckland and go see the view on top of Mount Eden. I thought the walk/very short hike up Mount Eden absolutely would be the biggest hill I would be climbing for a while (wrong!). A Cross Country team was training on the mountain- the highest point in Auckland. Some of the kids looked like they were being tortured and one member even said, “hey boys you want to go ahead and throw up so we can get this over with and finish early today?” If that team runs those hills everyday, I think they might be the fastest in the world, ha.

I understand now how people say reaching the top of the mountain is really satisfying. Not that this was a big mountain by any means, it is actually very small but regardless I still thought the view at the top was really cool. There was this huge valley along the way there and the friends of mine I went with wanted to go down it! I am very impressed with everyone else’s drive for adventure and willingness to do new things. It makes me happy that I have found people that will push me to try new activities that I wouldn’t normally. Stephie and Claudia have been wonderful to have around this trip, they give off so much positive energy and are unique from anyone I know. Usually when I meet people I am able to say, “you remind me of this person in my past…” But Claudia and Stephie are brand new types of people and I love it. Two guys I have become buddies with are Roman and Martin. To describe everyone a little…

Claudia is from Austria and has very cool looking light blue eyes. While she never played sports she is very good at them, including climbing trees. She likes to hike with her bare feet and is quite the pro at it. I once asked her if I needed shoes for a walk up a landmass alongside the beach. She said no and basically hopped uphill like a happy rabbit and I about pierced my feet with every rock possible. She doesn’t give herself enough credit for her English speaking capabilities; I think it is really cool that any of my friends here know two languages. Even though she may not know everything she wants to say all the time, it is so easy to tell she is very outgoing and social. She’s eager to learn and picks up things very quickly, already her English has improved so much. Claudia is the first person I’ve met that also use to set their alarm clock as a kid really early in the morning and keep hitting snooze to have vivid dreams. It is cool to find someone to talk about dreams with and how interesting and important they can be in our lives.

Stephie has short hair and can pull it off very well, when she is all dressed up she reminds me of the singer Pink. I find her a confident and strong person. I really like her style; she always has fun outfits on. For two years she was a nanny near Washington D.C. Her English is very good and her accent is not thick at all. Stephie is very smart and is right there with me with my sense of humor and often keeps me in tears laughing so hard. I can tell that she is dedicated to school and is a very responsible person but she also knows how to have a good time. I don’t think anyone could feel lonely when Stephie is around. She is always so accommodating to everyone. Lately a few of us have been doing a diner rotation and she has been so kind making sure that the food people are fixing does not have dairy in it. Everyone is so nice for accommodating me in meals, just one more month and I’ll try dairy again!

Roman is very tall and has two grey spots of hair spotted on the back of his head which he says he doesn’t like but I think it makes him look distinguished. He is a handsome guy and looks very young for his age; I never would have guessed he was 30. He is very good at climbing and does it often back home in Switzerland. His voice is quite distinct; it sounds quite calming and can be understood well. Roman’s masters is very interesting, I haven’t completely understood all of what he does but it has to do with forensics and computers. So I think that means he would be hired by a company to investigate fraud. I am hearing new names all of the time here and so far I think Roman has been the coolest. Martin is from Denmark and is a great person to hang out with. He is very well read and it is easy to strike up an interesting conversation with him. Martin knows a lot about many different topics. While he has his own opinions he is very open minded and willing to listen to new ideas and sides of an issue. Philosophical and intelligent with a good sense of humor describes him well. He is a great photographer and I really admire the pictures he has been taking.

Since it is summertime here it has been great checking out all of the beaches. I still think that every beach I have seen here tops any that I have seen in my past. I think one of the coolest parts about beaches in New Zealand is the fact that there are beautiful trees and grass as nice as a golf course right next to the sand. If you’re a person who hates sand but enjoys the water, New Zealand is the place to go because there are plenty of places on the lush green grass to chill out. A group of about 12 of us decided to spend some time on Waiheke Island. It is about a 30 minute ferry ride away from Auckland. The ferry was pretty sweet, I was expecting some slow ride but this boat really booked it! I had to be careful standing when I was taking pictures to not fall off or slip.

The place we stayed was called the Haneruka Lodge. It was amazing! There was a huge Native American TP built that a lot of our group slept in. The TP had about ten beds and it was pretty big. The hostel was different from any that I have seen so far. It was a five minute walk through the woods to get to it and the lodge was well hidden with trees. The owner of the hostel had the cutest dog ever and was definitely one of those guys who never wanted to grow up. Each night he stayed up as late as the rest of us pouring many people drinks while taking them down as well- the beer gut definitely was forming. He just decided one day to buy a hostel, but I think this means he was rich first somehow and then bought one. Although I really have no idea how much it would cost. There was also a pool that you could jump in from off the roof above and lots of tables under the trees.

All of us ended up staying two nights and each night we brought and cooked food from the store for dinner and breakfast. I really liked doing that, it was a lot cheaper and it gave all of us a chance to sit together and get to know each other. Some of the other girls I haven’t mentioned yet that came along too were Anita, Julia, and Alex and I am still getting to know all of them. Some of the other guys were Karston, Jakob, Peter, and Mario. Peter, Jakob, and Karsten came together as friends from Denmark-they make a good trio together.

When we were on the Island I was excited to Kayak for the first time. The water was choppy and wind strong- it was definitely a work out. But the scenery around us was awesome. It felt good getting soaked by the cold water because it was very sunny out. We stopped at a small little land mass and rested for a while. It was three hours of kayaking and a lot of fun. My partner was Mario and I believe he was a little upset that I couldn’t go faster! The motion took some getting use to, I think I will be better at it the next time.

As for the bike riding we did the next day…I failed pretty badly at keeping up! I was wearing sandals and didn’t bring any water with me. Big mistake for a 30 km bike ride up hills that you were so big you had to walk your bike up or peddle and go no where. So Mount Eden was not and will not be the end of big hills! I felt like I was holding the group back so I decided to go my own way. For the first time I hitch hiked! Haha, a guy named Dave who had a truck was very nice and offered to take me back to return the bike. I have been told by a lot of people that New Zealand is one of the safest places in the world to hitch hike and it is quite common. Dave was a builder on the Island and had lived there for about 12 years. What a cool life to live at a place like that. The whole group enjoyed hearing my story about Dave. I ended up going back by myself on the Ferry because I wanted to take some time to take some pictures. I feel like I haven’t been taking very many since I have been here. I am so impressed with seeing with my own eyes that I am finding it hard to take time out to adjust my lens. But I will start because I know that traveling is the greatest time for photos.