Thats Rangitoto there in the distance...
(Photos of Penguins)(I don't know whats going with that earlier blank post I didn't do it so there must be someone secretly accessing my blog and leaving blank posts to freak me out)
Anyway I've been here a few days and I'm sure you're all just dying to know what I think of the place. Its good.
Ahright fine I'll give a break down of my first few days. This blog will be day one.
I arrived here at about 5 o'clock Wednesday morning which was for the most part very confusing because I got on the flight at 9.30 Monday night. You might think arriving in New Zealand might be something special, ye know like a couple of hobbits arrive to escort you off your plane. Not anything like that, arriving in New Zealand is exactly like arriving home.
You know after you've left Ireland for a while (and Newmarket in particular) how when you get back it's always pissing rain? Like the rain has been waiting for you? Well that's how it is here. I arrived and it was pissing and has been pretty much ever since. Good thing I don't mind the rain then eh?
In the airport a friendly little man booked a hostel for me (an Indian not a hobbit unfortunately). I was very greatful at time. I arrived in Auckland city after a short bus drive and trudged my way up to my hostel, "Connors Top Floor Hostel". Form the outside it did look a bit suspect but not alarmingly so. A friendly Irish lad working there showed me to my room. My "private room", was in actual fact one very large that had been divided into "private rooms" with very thin wooden boards. It was about 8 x 6 ft. I could hear EVERYTHING from the neighbouring (and if I so wished see everything as well seen as the "wall" fell short about a foot below the ceiling.
"Here you are" says my Irish friend. "Nice and cosy isn't it?"
Another thing, oddly the entire place smelled like fried chicken. Oh and also none of the locks worked and there weren't even any on the cubicles/showers.
I left shortly after and booked myself into a much nicer place just down the road. Despite the fact already paid for the other hell hole.
This is turing into ta rather long blog, gonna have to update more frequently. So anyway after I book the new place I head out to Kelly Tarltons undersea adventure... or something like that. A very cool underground aquarium with giant stingrays and sharks and also a colony of gentoo and Emperor penguins.It's mad they have em in this big chamber where they've simulated artic conditions. They bring you around the penguin area in a heated "snow cat". After this I went and had a walk around mission bay, nice little seaside town just outside Auckland. They have a famous fountain( well so the bus drvier says anyway). I went over to take a picture of the fountain to find two topless women frolicing in it. I couldn't really take a picture then though as they might have thought I was perving. I left shortly after as I figured it would be assumed I was perving taking a picture or not. Although in my opinion they could really have picked a better place to do their frolicing( I'm not complaining really, it's a rare occurence you come upon fountains with half naked females hanging around in them, despite what ancient rome might have you believe). At this point I was starting to reassess my view that New Zealand was quite like home.
What came next very definitively changed that view.
So I'm walking up the main street in Auckland, still heavily jetlagged. I hadn't slept in over like 30 hours at this point. I noticed that big crowds were gathering on either side of the road. I didn't pay much heed cause I was tired and hungry. As I said I was heavily jetlagged so you'll forgive me when I say that at first I did not believe what I saw coming down the road. A tank. Not just any tank though, a tank with a woman on top. The woman had the biggest pair of breasts I have ever seen. I mean monstrously big, causing serious back trouble big. And she was topless. Whatever about topless women in fountains, a topless woman riding down the street on a tank surely couldn't be commonplace. I had gotten over the strangeness of this when more started coming. Scores of them, scores of scantly clad/ half naked women. Coming down the road in every manner of vehicle, from convertibles to moter bikes one was even in a jacuzzi on the back of a trailer. They were all waving, winking and fondling themselves at the crowd. (Which were mostly, but not exclusively male). It was the single most odd thing I've ever seen. By the end I was somewhat awed by the display, can you imagine a similar thing back home, in say O'Connell street in Dublin? The country would be go mad. The church and the old people would be up in arms. There'd be late late specials about it. Here the "8th annual erotica expo" (that's what it was by the way, for those of you who think I've gone strark raving mad and/or just made it all up) barely even caused a stir afterwards business as usual.
So yeah, definately not like Ireland then...
Anyway I've been here a few days and I'm sure you're all just dying to know what I think of the place. Its good.
Ahright fine I'll give a break down of my first few days. This blog will be day one.
I arrived here at about 5 o'clock Wednesday morning which was for the most part very confusing because I got on the flight at 9.30 Monday night. You might think arriving in New Zealand might be something special, ye know like a couple of hobbits arrive to escort you off your plane. Not anything like that, arriving in New Zealand is exactly like arriving home.
You know after you've left Ireland for a while (and Newmarket in particular) how when you get back it's always pissing rain? Like the rain has been waiting for you? Well that's how it is here. I arrived and it was pissing and has been pretty much ever since. Good thing I don't mind the rain then eh?
In the airport a friendly little man booked a hostel for me (an Indian not a hobbit unfortunately). I was very greatful at time. I arrived in Auckland city after a short bus drive and trudged my way up to my hostel, "Connors Top Floor Hostel". Form the outside it did look a bit suspect but not alarmingly so. A friendly Irish lad working there showed me to my room. My "private room", was in actual fact one very large that had been divided into "private rooms" with very thin wooden boards. It was about 8 x 6 ft. I could hear EVERYTHING from the neighbouring (and if I so wished see everything as well seen as the "wall" fell short about a foot below the ceiling.
"Here you are" says my Irish friend. "Nice and cosy isn't it?"
Another thing, oddly the entire place smelled like fried chicken. Oh and also none of the locks worked and there weren't even any on the cubicles/showers.
I left shortly after and booked myself into a much nicer place just down the road. Despite the fact already paid for the other hell hole.
This is turing into ta rather long blog, gonna have to update more frequently. So anyway after I book the new place I head out to Kelly Tarltons undersea adventure... or something like that. A very cool underground aquarium with giant stingrays and sharks and also a colony of gentoo and Emperor penguins.It's mad they have em in this big chamber where they've simulated artic conditions. They bring you around the penguin area in a heated "snow cat". After this I went and had a walk around mission bay, nice little seaside town just outside Auckland. They have a famous fountain( well so the bus drvier says anyway). I went over to take a picture of the fountain to find two topless women frolicing in it. I couldn't really take a picture then though as they might have thought I was perving. I left shortly after as I figured it would be assumed I was perving taking a picture or not. Although in my opinion they could really have picked a better place to do their frolicing( I'm not complaining really, it's a rare occurence you come upon fountains with half naked females hanging around in them, despite what ancient rome might have you believe). At this point I was starting to reassess my view that New Zealand was quite like home.
What came next very definitively changed that view.
So I'm walking up the main street in Auckland, still heavily jetlagged. I hadn't slept in over like 30 hours at this point. I noticed that big crowds were gathering on either side of the road. I didn't pay much heed cause I was tired and hungry. As I said I was heavily jetlagged so you'll forgive me when I say that at first I did not believe what I saw coming down the road. A tank. Not just any tank though, a tank with a woman on top. The woman had the biggest pair of breasts I have ever seen. I mean monstrously big, causing serious back trouble big. And she was topless. Whatever about topless women in fountains, a topless woman riding down the street on a tank surely couldn't be commonplace. I had gotten over the strangeness of this when more started coming. Scores of them, scores of scantly clad/ half naked women. Coming down the road in every manner of vehicle, from convertibles to moter bikes one was even in a jacuzzi on the back of a trailer. They were all waving, winking and fondling themselves at the crowd. (Which were mostly, but not exclusively male). It was the single most odd thing I've ever seen. By the end I was somewhat awed by the display, can you imagine a similar thing back home, in say O'Connell street in Dublin? The country would be go mad. The church and the old people would be up in arms. There'd be late late specials about it. Here the "8th annual erotica expo" (that's what it was by the way, for those of you who think I've gone strark raving mad and/or just made it all up) barely even caused a stir afterwards business as usual.
So yeah, definately not like Ireland then...
