Just another work week
Auckland didn’t have a great week during our time there. First a gale, then a terrible fire on the roof of the under construction $700M convention center that burned for days and shut down parts of the city for firefighting crews and due to toxic smoke, and then the final injury – a loss to England in the Rugby World Cup Semi-Finals. We, however, had a wonderful and productive week. (Be forewarned though – not a very adventure filled one, so this will be a pretty boring post.)
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Getting ready in Auckland
This was our week to get everything done so we can focus on playing for six months, and play involves money, toys and a vehicle. All our chores were helped along by the amazingly friendly and kind Kiwis (New Zealanders) who overwhelmed us with their welcome. From the guy who set us up with our new sim cards, to the bank manager, to the apartment neighbor who rushed to give us home-baked cookies, everyone we interacted with was happy we were visiting and curious to know why.
Why? Are they kidding? New Zealand feels like it was made for us – beautiful diverse landscapes around every corner, a sincere desire to care for their land and people (alongside a recognition that they haven’t always done this), and a liberal government led by a progressive young woman. Add in good coffee culture and delicious wine and what more could one want for a six month holiday? Only one person potentially got it right – the woman who sold us our roof box said “you made a mistake doing NZ first in your world travels: everything else will pale in comparison.”
We spent Monday mostly playing tourists with a long walk through vibrant neighborhoods to our first flat white at a hip coffee shop, a hike on Mt Eden (a volcanic hill and crater in the center of the city – there are 44 in this city! with Mt Eden the highest), a walk through the Auckland Domain (a large and extremely well done park) and the buzzing Auckland University campus, culminating in the waterfront port and city center where we took care of opening our account at Bank New Zealand and getting our phones set up.
A quick stop to watch all the touch rugby games as we were walking home through Victoria Park and another at the grocery and then it was time for sunset at the beach, with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc which tasted all the better for being here.
The rest of the week flew by. Every day I enjoyed sunrise walks along the coves at the end of each street in the old Herne Bay neighborhood in which we were living or under the Auckland Bridge to the marina and edge of the city. We took care of loads of formalities that are involved with leaving work (health insurance, 401ks, etc.) and getting covered for new life with COBRA/ACA, car insurance, etc.
And we fit in a gorgeous walk at Carlton Park (full of sheep right in the city!) and One Tree Hill (2nd highest volcanic hill) for beautiful city views. But mostly we were massive consumers, which was very strange for us after all these years of saving every penny we could.
We spent two days car shopping, in disbelief at our interactions with the dealers. Not a single one was pushy at all! They spent their time with us telling us about their favorite places that we must visit while in NZ and wished us a great trip as we left. Not one hard sell or attempt to give us a “deal we couldn’t walk away from.”
We settled on a 2011 Subaru Forester that we bought from a family run used car dealer about whom we felt very good. NZ has a great consumer protection system where anything that goes wrong for 3 months after a used car purchase is the responsibility of the dealer to fix. Robert is also interested in buying the car back from us at the end of our time which calmed our nerves about that aspect. Our biggest challenge is trying to learn how to pronounce Subaru the way the kiwis do.
We outfitted the car with the purchase of a roof rack, rocket box, kayak rack and bike rack. We spent ages at ‘The Warehouse’ and ‘Briscoes’ and ‘The Storage Container’ purchasing all the things we “need” for a life hopping from one AirBnb to the next. (A sharp knife, clean cutting board, pillow, laundry detergent, olive oil, etc. etc. and all the bags and boxes to house them as we transport them in and out each week.)
We shopped around for used bikes then gave up and purchased new ones at a Labour Day sale, but did buy our rocket box second-hand from a fishing charter captain and a used kayak, via TradeMe, which is NZ’s version of eBay/Craig’s List. Finally we did major grocery shopping to stock up for the following week in a less populated area.
We wrapped up the week with a visit to Mission Bay for our last Auckland sunset until we return in six months.
Despite the running around and focus on stuff, we had an amazingly fun week – reveling in the start of our new lives. Auckland is a beautiful, walkable, manageable-sized city surrounded by water and hills and full of green spaces where locals and tourists seem to blend together seamlessly. We really like Auckland and are looking forward to spending more time exploring its cafes, museums, parks, two huge harbors, beaches and islands at the tail end of our time in NZ.
Week 1 of our journey