Auckland, again, and a new friend!

After our adventure filled day in Rotorua, Lorena and I caught a bus back to Auckland...again.  It was a four hour trip that we, shockingly, talked the whole way through.  At one point Lorena got pulled into a conversation with her seat buddy and I started one up with my seat buddy.  He was a lovely older gentleman from Scotland.  It took me a few minutes to get used to his still quite strong accent, but he was rather interesting to talk to!  I got his whole family history and learned that he was heading home further north after visiting his son.  I love how everyone is so friendly here!

As soon as we arrived in Auckland, one strap on Lorena's backpack broke!  There was a brief minute of panic that other straps and important elements to the backpack's integrity might break as well... but she quickly found a way to rig it up so we could walk to the backpackers.  Phew.  Once at the backpackers we decided that we would try the coast to coast walk.  It's a 16km walk across Auckland from the Pacific to the Tasman sea.  There are claims that some of the best views 

are on this walk so we decided to get some exercise and see the sights...but first we were starving.  We stopped at Velvet Burger, a fabulous burger joint throughout NZ with so many AMAZING sounding burgers that it was by far one of our best food decisions to date.  Before we left on our long trek, we washed our hands in the bathrooms and personally, I was thoroughly amused by the bathroom signs, hence the reason I took a picture.  What can I say?  Easily amused :)

We tried to get a detailed map of the walk from the Information center, but there were a lot of people in line and we didn't have a lot of time or patience to wait, we decided to wing it based on the Lonely Planet map.  There were markers along the way attached to signposts and lampposts, so we tried to keep our eyes peeled for those... although we did miss one when we detoured into a garden... and then we were rather lost for a while, but eventually we figured it all out and tried desperately not to veer from the path any further as we didn't want to be walking back from the other end of Auckland at midnight.  We walked through the Auckland Domain, a huge garden area (a similar idea to Central park except it's huge and not obvious you're still in a city) that holds the Auckland Museum and the Winter Garden and Fernery.  We decided to take another "quick" detour and look at the large greenhouses and fernery.  We may have gotten a bit distracted with picture taking because an hour later, as the sun was nearing the end of its descent, we realized we wouldn't have time to finish the coast to coast walk before dark.  So, instead of views of the city, I give you a SMALL sampling of pictures we took in the greenhouses, also known as "Elena figures out what the macro setting on her camera does"

Lorena loving ice cream

After walking and bussing it back to our backpackers, we were hungry again and might have hit up Velvet Burger for the second time in the same day - but only after we checked to see there had been a shift change and no one would recognize us.  Then it was on to the Ice Bar: Minus 5.  Lonely Planet mentioned it - a bar made completely of ice.  I had grandiose visions of the James Bond Ice Hotel so we walked down to the pier and went in.  Because it's so cold in there, we got suited up in big winter jackets with hoods, gloves, and Uggs since I was wearing flip flops.  Sadly, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but here's a link to Minus 5, it's the one in Queenstown but they're about the same.  It was actually really small!  Essentially we paid money to be ushered into a meat locker, but it was pretty cool.  The seats were all ice, there were some cool ice sculptures, the bar was all ice and the walls and floor were covered with ice as well.  Pretty impressive, but I can't imagination the refrigeration bill they must have!  The glasses were made of ice too and fortunately there were grippy things on all the tables so your drink didn't hydroplane away.  We were there with another group of 4 people, but they left and we chatted up the bartender since there wasn't much to do in the bar.  He was from England on a working holiday as well.  More people came in and the bartenders changed (so one doesn't freeze on the job), so we smashed our glasses (you're supposed to!) and left to get back to the summer air outside.

On our way back to the backpackers, we ran into 3 random guys who wanted us to join them at a bar somewhere.  They were all quite chatty and we ended up standing on the sidewalk talking to them for a good long while.  One got distracted with another random couple walking down the sidewalk, so Lorena and I chatted with the other two, taught one how to dance a little waltz and quizzed another on his lack of knowledge about Auckland.  Pictures were taken of the group - but on one of the guys' cameras... so there's no photographic evidence I have of these randoms, but it solved Lorena's and my problem of what to do with the remainder of our evening!

The next morning we lazed around over coffee and breakfast and then Lorena caught a bus to the airport to fly home :(  So, after big hugs, I waved her off and decided to try and do the coast to coast walk since it was my last day in Auckland.  I got a photocopied map and picked up my sneakers and a backpack and started out again.  This time I made it past the flower garden!  The markers were a little hard to find sometimes, so it all rather felt like a treasure hunt, trying to find the next marker.

after crossing a huge field, this little 4" circle was most welcome to see!

I climbed up one hill and got a nice view of the city:

Do kids who don't go here get a complex?

 I passed a girl doing the same walk and shortly thereafter came across a tire swing.  Sadly, I didn't want to be caught swinging on it by the girl I'd just passed so I unwillingly walked by.  The map got a little fuzzy in a couple places so I backtracked a few times and by the time I got to the base of One Tree Hill, the girl I'd passed had caught up.  To climb up One Tree Hill, there was a turn off and the girl and I consulted each other to make sure it was the correct way, and then we just started talking and walking together.  Her name is Nicole, she's from Italy and is here for a working holiday too! 

We hiked up One Tree Hill together

not actually a tree on top of one tree hill - the took it down since it was a pine and not native - ha, oops

And then we hiked back down and didn't stop walking and talking until we reached the end.

The end was rather disappointing, kind of a crap view, but that could have been because the tide was out so we were looking at mud.  After that, we weren't sure which bus to catch or where to catch it, so we walked back and stopped for fish 'n chips since she hadn't had them yet.  We cut off some of the meandering parts of the walk and then realized we were staying at the same backpackers.  Crazy small world.  We swapped numbers and email, and now we are not only facebook friends, but she has since visited me in Dunedin and we have plans to hike the Milford Track and to meet in Melbourne.  Yay new friends!!