Awfully Awkward in Auckland(!)
Trip Start
Dec 21, 2009
1
22
Trip End
Aug 07, 2010
Auckland, North Island, New Zealand
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Awkward in Auckland!
Hi guys... it's taken me a while to get this blog up but I figured I'd at least have a few things
to talk about by the time I did.
As you all know, the main reason for me coming here to NZ was to apply for my working holiday visa to give me a bit more time in Australia. I only booked my flight about 18 hours before getting on it and I had a very enjoyably 4am wake-up to get to the airport on time.
I got to the airport ahead of time and everything went smoothly. For about 2 minutes. I checked in my luggage, presented my flight tickets (to and from NZ - VERY important, otherwise they don't let you in!) and my passport. Now I don't know what it is that's cursed about my passport(s) because once again customs didn't seem to like it very much. The man took my passport, scanned it and frowned. A familiar (but not so encouraging sight) that seems to have stalked me everywhere (Thailand, Hong Kong, Australia..now New Zealand!?). 10 minutes later and it still wasn't working, so he went to a different desk to try calling immigration. This left me at his desk alone with my hand luggage, just waiting. Evennnnntually, he returned and it was all ok. He gave no explanation as to what had been wrong but I had the green light.
The flight itself was pretty uneventful (always a good thing) and the choice of movies was good. Emirates definitely ranks up there, next to Cathay Pacific, as one of my favourite airlines. I landed in Auckland and again had a little difficulty with customs... this time trying to explain that I had no address, no intended area to stay in or person to stay with. The bloke seemed nice enough and let me in once he realised I wasn't going to cause any trouble.
I went to the tourist information and picked up a few leaflets. The Airbus took me into Auckland dropped me off at a hostel I'd found advertised in the airport. At just under £15 a night, I couldn't really complain and the room itself was like what my room in Hong Kong would have wished it was. It was bigger, cleaner and even (wait for it) had a window. The block itself was pretty clean and served as a decent roof over my head for a couple of nights.
On Thursday I went to the Auckland Museum, which has a combination of Natural History, Science and Cultural Maori exhibitions, as well as a dedicated war memorial with exhibits on the second world war. Naturally I worked on my Australian visa application and left it as much as I could for the time being.
Friday I had a lie in, read my book, went for a walk around Auckland and just took in the sites.
Nothing particularly exciting in the day but I went to the cinema and watched the movie 'Kick-Ass', a movie I really enjoyed, although its goriness has been much underplayed in the adverts!
Yesterday, Saturday, I went and did something I have secretly always wanted to do but have been unable/too poor(/too scared!) to go ahead and book. This was at the 'Sky Tower' here in Auckland, where I did the 'sky walk' and 'sky jump.' You can pretty much guess what that was about, but it really was incredible. I arrived 15 minutes early, as requested, and was put in a group of 6 people who would be doing the walk on the edge of the building...200 metres up! The building itself is round and has a protruding gangway which encircles it, measuring only 1.2 metres wide, which looks a lot thinner than it is when you're standing so high up! We were in attractive, bright orange jump suits that made us look like convicts and were only held up by two ropes... Not so reassuring but you don't sign up to do it if you're gonna cry about it. Anyway the woman could tell I was nervous (I just saw someone do the jump and all I could hear was wild, uncontrolled screaming.. of the bad kind!), so she put me at the front of the group. That was, I guess, really cool because it meant that she was the only one ahead of me and so I had a pretty unrestricted view the entire time. She got us to do all sorts of 'games' (for wont of a sadistic word) where we closed our eyes and walked forwards and then backwards along the gangway. We each had individual photos taken leaning off the edge (again... &*%£ing scary) and a group photo which I bought at the end for the memories :-). All along we were pointed out various points of interest and it's true that the view is indeed
spectacular, especially on a nice day like that one.
A while later we completed the walk and a few of us stayed on for the second part of the experience: the jump. We got kitted up in a different (but similarly sexy) suit, which was blue this time. I let the couple that I'd done the climb with go first (it was the wife's birthday present) and watched them fall 192m in no time at all. The way it works is that the jump takes off from the same platform that the walk takes place on, with you attached to a cable via your back. That cable is then itself attached to two cables (one on either side of you) that run all the way down to the ground..much like a train track. Anyway, I got on the platform, posed for the photos and was hoisted onto the cable. I then moved to the edge of the ledge... nothing holding me back this time but my arms and the loose cable attached to my back. All I had to do was lean forward and let myself fall.
"3, 2, 1, GO!!" ............. (jump).
Not quite as glamorous as the others by any means, what with the last minute panic (which lasted about 5 seconds before I told myself to MTFU!), especially because when I did go, I started waving my arms and legs in the air frantically, as if I was taking part in some kind of mid-air front crawl race. What happens is they let you drop 10 metres first, stop it, check you're ok and take a photo of you before releasing it at any given moment. Dangling in the air at 182 metres in the air like that is NOT something that I can say I've experienced many times but it was the wierdest (and scariest thing EVER)...being suspended by something you couldn't see with nothing but an entire city full of people and a huge great big fat target below you that you were instantly about to hurtle towards.
Anyway, a matter of seconds later and I'd zoomed to the ground and hit the target (literally - my smooth moves meant that instead of landing on my feet I pretty much just fell over laughing with relief/exhilaration). Seriously, an awesome experience I would try again, even if I did have a
last minute change of mind! I then went back up the tower to the tourist observation point and watched a few jumps from a spectator's view - even that got your heart pumping!
Today, I've not done much in particular. I took a round-trip on the ferry and went for a walk which was pretty cool. I'm also just about to go see Avatar in 3d (FIIIINALLY I get to see it after being isolated in Thailand and not getting the chance), because I figured that If I don't watch it now, I'll never get the chance to watch it in a cinema. Not sure what the next few days involve, but I guess it'll mainly be relaxing, organising Australian work visa (checking for certain now that the embassy will be open again, post-weekend) and hopefully doing one more day-trip.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to scan the skywalk or skyjump photos so I've only been able to upload photos of a photo,but hopefully you'll enhjoy them nonetheless.
Let me know how you're doing..spread the word, show people the link, whatever. I'd love to hear
from you all, as ever :-). xxxxxxxx
(I just want to confirm, photos of Hong Kong Pt II and the ones from Sydney are now also up... do have a look if you have the chance!)
