Day 56, Summer in Asia, Auckland, New Zealand
Flying into New Zealand was beautiful. The airport was on the edge of the ocean, felt as though we were landing on water.
We got into Auckland yesterday in the evening, but we were a bit too jet lagged to go out and explore the third most livable city in the world. We’re staying here for five days, just enough to get a general feel for the city.
Here are a couple of snaps from the Auckland airport.
Our 2-bedroom condo has a fantastic view of the ocean on one side and a famous cemetery at our doorstep.
We are a few minutes walk from the intersection of Queens Street and K street. Coming from a country where is was difficult to find a restaurant where we could safely feed our fragile North American stomachs, it was nice to be in a place where everything is free game. We also haven’t been to a country where English is spoken by everyone in quite some time. It always takes some getting used to.
Found coffee!
We are in a fantastic part of the city, with a concentration of university students and many tourists. The diversity here is impressive, in the people and the restaurants. Queen Street and K Street are both well known, and it’s understandable why. In a small area, there are authentic Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Philippino, Lebanese, Indian, and French restaurants. It would take weeks to eat at all of them.
We all agree that Auckland reminds us a great deal of Toronto, but with a milder winter. If this is as cold as it gets, it’s extremely manageable. The 2-bedroom apartment we’re staying in doesn’t even have central heating, just one portable heater for the entire space. When we first arrived I was skeptical, but sure enough, it’s sufficient to heat the entire place. This is a city one could easily live in permanently. I especially enjoy the Asian influences which are seen everywhere. I can already tell this will be one of my favorite cities I’ve ever visited.
There is a unique mix of urban eclectic fashion style here, with an emphasis on vintage. Today, within a few blocks, we went to at 11 vintage clothing shops in search of a warmer jacket for me. We found one for twenty dollars, and I can now happily do these brisker temps.
We also found the grandaddy of all surplus stores, which could have also doubled as a museum of war artifacts from around the world.
The flea market we found was also full of vintage items.
We discovered that we are here during the New Zealand Film Festival which is pretty awesome. We will try to squeeze in a few movies. But tonight we are going mainstream by seeing Atomic Blonde, since it just came out. After the movie, we had a late take-out dinner a Korean restaurant.
I’m anticipating an enjoyable and somewhat effortless week.
