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| Sub par attempt at a panorama from our hotel... |
No pictures from today, unfortunately.
A bittersweet departure was barely acknowledged as I dizzily
packed up my bag that morning and lazily slumped off for the lobby where our
taxis were waiting - in a zombie-like manner, if you didn’t get the picture
already. This is going to be our longest
and most miserable flight of the trip, one is an inevitable obstacle, the
other: self-imposed. Either way, I would
do anything for any length of time to simply step foot on New Zealand – much less
spend 10 days here.
The flight flew by as exhaustion trumped excitement, and I
woke up to my French smelling, and sounding, neighbor told me all about the
scenery as we flew over the approaching coast of New Zealand. The iconic green countryside of rolling hills
abutted against rocky coastlines was immediately prominent and stuck out in
such a way that the land appeared nearly mystical. No wonder Peter Jackson picked this
incredible country to be the primary filming location for the epic trilogy Lord
of the Rings - I'll try to keep the Lord of the Rings references and comments to a minimum. First thing I got the urge
to do was get on a horse and ride for as long as possible through the country’s
varying and wholly bucolic landscape.
But that’s just me.
We took a drive through the outskirts of town to our hotel
right on the edge of the university area and just a few blocks away from the
main city center, Queens Street.
Unfortunately we did not discover this until the following day, and we
happened to take a wrong turn to the red light district of Auckland. Not the best first impression, but that will
fortunately be trumped shortly.
All in all, this was
a day of stepping out and trying to discover as much as we could in weather
that was not conducive to anything outdoors.
Subsequently, we only saw the rougher area of town, which every big city
unfortunately has, but tomorrow is looking up as we have several cultural
events planned. Already in love with
this city simply knowing how proximal extreme landscape and overwhelming
environment is to where we currently reside.
All sorts of thoughts, dreams and activities in mind are flying around
upstairs. Not the soundest night of
sleep, even in the nicest accommodation to date.
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