PLEASE READ TO THE END! PICS COME LATER!
First things first:- I have been informed by many of the people that I have met that when people ask us where we are from we should say "The United States" and not "America." Reason being, America consists of three countries in North America and many more in Central and South America. So Iknow say that I am from the United States. In my posts I will not use the term "American" but "United States-er" or "USer." The term USer is ironically a pretty good description seeing as the USA seems to USe the rest of the world fairly often. As some of you may know, Auckland is the largest city (but not the Capital) in New Zealand. It has about 1.4 million people spread out over an area that is not too much larger than Raleigh. It is an expensive city, but everywhere seems to be expensive in NZ. We worked on a house in "the cheapest suburb in Auckland" that was one story, 4 bedroom if I remember correctly, and we were told that it would rent for over $2500 a month and sell for almost NZ $400,000. US $1 equals about NZ $.76. This house could not have been anymore than 2500 square feet and was about a 30 min drive from the city centre. $400,000 seems a bit much for me.
Anyways, we stayed in Auckland for about two weeks. On the day we arrived, we left the airport, heading toward an address of a hostel that had been recommended to us by a USer that we met in Fiji. When we got to the address at about 9pm, we payed our driver who was in a pretty big hurry to leave, and went to where the hostel was supposed to be; only to realize that it no longer existed. The lady who was living in the house said we could stay there for $20 each but we ran into a German guy who was also looking for the hostel, so we teamed up w/ him and tried to find a place to stay. We ended up getting a room for the 4 of us at a Bed and Breakfast (really nice) for $26. It would have been about $45 per person but they kind of felt sorry for us because there were no dorm rooms available, which is what we were looking for. A dorm room (kind of like summer camp bunks w/ a shared bathroom down the hall) is usually about $20 here in NZ.
For those who have never stayed in a hostel before, the dorms usually have between 6 and 10 beds in them, co-ed. There is a kitchen w/ cookware, a bathroom or two w/ 2 to 4 showers a piece, and sometimes a lounge/library/tv room. Most of the hostels here are pretty clean and full of travelers. GREAT FUN!
We ended up at "Conner's Top Floor Hostel" in the center of Auckland. It was on the top floor of a really nice hotel (that we were not allowed in). We ended up doing some work for the owner, and eventually buying a van from him (which you'll hear more about later). We weren't planning on staying in the city for 2 weeks but the van needed some work and we thought it would be worth it as it was a good price.
We made a lot of friends at Conner's, some of which were very sad to see us go. I think at one point there were 9 or 10 different nationalities sitting out on the porch passing joints and bottles of rum or whiskey around. We went out w/ people a few different times and had a lot of fun at the bars in the city.
Auckland is a huge mix of cultures. It has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world, and also has a large population of Asian immigrants. A walk up Queen Street takes you from the waterfront (more expensive bars), through the city center, where strangely you can stand in one All Blacks Rugby store and look across the street into another.
Side Note: The All Blacks are the national rugby team in NZ, the number one ranked team in the world, and the most important thing in the entire country. The Rugby World Cup just ended, the All Blacks were upset by the French, and the country went into a depression. The ENTIRE HOUR of news the next day was about the Rugby Union, and what they were going to do in response to the upset. There is nothing really to compare this to in the US...they care more about Rugby here that we do about all sports combined. It is 100 times more important than ACC B-Ball.
So, pass the All Blacks stores and see Victoria Park. On the weekends it is full of vendors selling clothes, jewelry, all kinds of stuff. Pretty cool to see this in the middle of a large city. This is also the spot where all the punk kids hang out. Seems to be an area where skaters congregate as well. I THINK it is legal to skate in the city in NZ. Wellington, the capital, seems to be a skater mecca, but more on that later.
Past the part, you walk up hill, past some apt. buildings, past a small Chinatown slash Koreatown slash anything Asian town, and get to K Road. K Road has the nick name "gay road" because of the adult stores and alternative people that seem to gravitate there but it was my favorite area of Auckland. Cheap sushi, cheap(er) bars, and lots of second hand shops dominate the street. There was even a cool hooka bar that I checked out. This is where you will see the real population of Auckland. The cultures all mix to form....K Road. BTW, the real name is Kxxxxxxxxxx but no one can pronounce it so it is dubbed K Road.
We had a lot of fun in Auckland. Saw a rugby game, went to the top of a tall building to get a great view of the city, and partied at our hostel a lot. Partying at the hostel....RUM NIGHT!
So we bought a bottle of Fijian rum at the duty free (airport) which is called Bounty. Actually we bought two bottles; this story concerns the second, which was opened at about midnight after everyone had already been drinking. Bounty is 116 proof, or 58% alcohol, and will make you breathe fire! I would rather drink 151 than Bountry...truly a horrible rum.
One night, everything was winding down at the hostel, when one of us (nate, cam and I) decided to go and get the bottle of Bounty. For the purpose of this story, I will not say which one of us felt the wrath of the Bounty, but I'm sure you will find out in time. The bottle made it to the kitchen, which is next to the deck, where we usually party. Very quickly, a circle formed around the table and the bottle was being passed around. Keep in mind that this is a liter, or 1000 mL, compared to a fifth at home which is 750mL.
So imagine, it is a Frenchman's birthday (Fransuoa), and he is already hammered. Two Chilean sisters (Scarlet and Victoria) who are determined to prove to the Europeans and USers that they can drink. I think they were also competing w/ each other. An off duty manager at the hostel (Garith) who is basicaly from NZ, a French girl (Dalphine) who works at the hostel and was quite fond of one of the USers, and a Brazillian (Phillip) who no one can even understand (not because he can't speak English, but because he is CRAZY!) also joined us. A random group, but we are all friends by this point in our stay at Conner's. Oh yea, an Indian guy named Moe who thinks he is a drug dealer in NYC was also with us.
As the bottle goes around, it gets emptier and emptier, and you begin to hear all of these different languages going on all at once. When people get drunk, they tend to speak their native language. Cam, Nate and I were doing the same things, speaking a sort of drunken, southern English that no one can really understand. By the time all of the babbling had finished, Phillip had passed out in the TV room, even though he had to work like 2 hours later. Scarlet and Victoria had gulped down enough rum to send them somewhere (I don't think it was the bathroom but they were obviously ready to explore the hostel), Garith was probablay following the Chilean girls around, Moe was telling someone how cool NYC was, and two of the USers were chilling outside on the deck. Where was the third USer you ask? We will call him BOB. He was passed out on the kitchen table, trying to claim that he was not drunk at all! Dalphine was sort of making fun slash taking care ofBOB, but it was impossible. He was OBLITERATED! From the table to the bathroom (about 10 meters) there were a few hard falls. Not the usual drunken fall forward, but a randomly hilarious fall backwards, onto his ass! BOB gets left in the bathroom to do his business while the other two go to find the super hot Chileans...but this peace doesn't last for long. BOB has some problems in the toilet and is found sitting on the ground in the bathroom, pants wet, staring off into space. When told that he needs to change clothes and go to bed, he denies that he is wasted and will not move. Imagine drunken rambling from a 23 year old guy, sitting on a bathroom floor of a New Zealand hostel. 30 minutes, 3 HARD falls, and a loud 4am run down the hallway later, BOB is in his bed. End of the night? Haha, I think not!
The next morning, the two other USer discover that the mattress of BOB has been tragically damaged. I will not say what the damage was (it wasn't shit) but is was pretty Fuckin hilarious!
All of the Americans, especially BOB, have learned a great lesson from RUM NIGHT. Bounty, or any Fijian rum for that matter, is not to be toyed with. We later learned that many a sailor has fallen overboard because of Bounty, and we can all thank The Lord that Bounty has not made its way to the States...yet!
