Graham Hughes and Oysters

This was a long holiday weekend here in the city, Monday being Auckland Anniversary Day, commemorating the arrival of New Zealand's first governor, William Hobson, in 1840. Down at the waterfront, the Auckland Seafood Festival ran all three days. I decided to head down there with one of my new friends here and check it out. My only real mission was to eat some New Zealand oysters, which I accomplished. They were quite good, but nowhere near as cheap as Apalachicola oysters, but then again I was at a seafood festival in the nation's largest city. As a future mission, I'll have to find the NZ equivalent to Apalach, and a good dive bar serving them raw.

A Selection of the Local AquaFauna

View of the CBD from the Seafood Festival

After the oysters, we decided to try the "Wild Seafood Challenge" - basically a long line for an overpriced sampler of 6 "wild" seafoods. The only one I'd actually call "wild" was sea urchin, and of course they were out of that by the time we'd gotten to the front of the line. However, in the course of getting ripped off I met a very interesting individual named Graham Hughes, who just happened to be in line next to me. Graham is closing in on his attempt to be the first person to ever visit every country on the planet without using an airplane - just ground and water transit, and he can't drive or captain it himself. He's knocked out 194 out of 201 (by his count - Mike, vet this). All he has left are a few hard-to-reach island nations and a return trip to Africa to visit South Sudan, which became a country after he'd left the continent (d'oh!). So check out his website, like him on Facebook, etc, because he was a cool guy and he's found something genuinely interesting to promote himself doing (yes, I hate him).

Ponsonby Manor

Dad just made two observations:

1) I have not put up any pictures of where I am staying. This is remedied below.

This is Ponsonby Manor, a.k.a. the Red Monkey Manor (because the owners also have a backpacker place called the Red Monkey - we don't let those types in here). My room is top-left, sharing the balcony.

This is the view across the street from that balcony (notice the bus stop and neighboring cafe, eh).

This is the view out the back window towards the CBD. That's the Sky Tower. You can see it in the first pic as well.

2) The place has kind of an Old West vibe.

That it does, especially in some of the storefront architecture. More on that later as I plan to do a little research...

! Murder Burger !

This place is awesome. Along Ponsonby Road, and in Auckland in general (not sure about all of NZ yet, thank you) one can find what I will call "boutique burger joints". The one that I decided to try first was Murder Burger - yes, just because I like the marketing. A lot of creativity has gone into the branding of this place, and it's the only one of its kind. I will definitely be making a Google Earth model of this place, because it deserves it. Wow, would it ever do well in Savannah. Oh yeah, the food is great too.

Some Things Are the Same #1

A normal trip to the grocery store will at some point make me want to beat someone, just like in America.

Approaching noon on Sunday, I decided to make my first foray to the big grocery store between where I am now, Ponsonby, and the CBD. I planned to walk there, as it is all downhill, then take the bus back up. However, it began to drizzle, so I decided to take the bus both ways. There is a stop with a nice shelter right outside the guest house. Next to the shelter is a row of cafes and eateries of various sorts, with parallel parking on the curb. No parking in front of the shelter, of course, as that is where a bus stops every 10 minutes, or 15 on the weekends.

However, since it was drizzling heavily, a gentleman (as I will refer to him at this point) in a Lexus SUV decided to wait in the bus lane for the parking spot just next to it, as it appeared that those using this spot (also in an SUV) were about to load up and leave. However, it became quickly evident that they were not leaving, just continually getting things from the car. They were sitting in the covered sidewalk area of the cafe adjacent to the spot, with small children. Lexus-SUV-dude decides to hang in there anyway. An optimist, I suppose. The bus is approaching. I'm eager to see what is going to happen. I'm assuming that the bus driver will lay on the horn, and the Lexus SUV will leave, chagrinned.

Not so.

The bus begins to pull into its spot, then pauses, as it cannot get out of traffic all the way because of the Lexus. I lock eyes with the bus driver and begin to step out from the shelter. The driver shrugs his shoulders and pulls back out, carrying on. I was dumbfounded. Then I was pissed. I had just waited 10 minutes for the bus, and would now have to wait 15 more. Lexus is still there, hazards flashing. Yes, I knocked on his window. He rolled it down.

"You know, you just made me miss my bus because you're sitting in the bus lane."

"Oh, so sorry."

I didn't press it. He was older and seemed genuinely nonplussed about what had just occurred. Yet he persisted in waiting for the parking spot. Yes, for another 15 minutes, until the next bus came by, without stopping. By this time it had stopped drizzling, so I just started walking, as Lexus guy finally gave up and drove on.

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The New World grocery store was very much like any American supermarket. The only real difference were the accents flying about and the actual brand names on the packets (though some were the same). It was even full of people oblivious to how their positioning in the aisles might be obstructing traffic, unattended children pulling items from shelves while parents looked elsewhere, and those people who should never be let anywhere near a self-check-out lane. All the same.

Still, I made it without throttling anyone. In a future post I'm going to do a breakdown of what different things cost in New Zealand, using many of the items from this shopping trip...

Christchurch Foibles

Though I am now in Auckland, and think that I would enjoy working here, I am also looking at positions elsewhere. One of these places is Christchurch. This is the largest city on the South Island, and the third-largest city in New Zealand. Starting in September of 2010, Chch (a convenient shortening) has been rocked by a series of earthquakes and aftershocks, major and minor. They continue presently. Just this January 2nd were 5.1 and 5.5 tremors. While this has been hell on the general economy, it has created lots of work for city planners and urban designers. So, it could be an interesting opportunity, but there are obvious drawbacks. See articles below:

"Visitors want to be moved"

"Southern men face woman-drought"

RESURRECTION!

I made promises (to myself and others) to start blogging again with my new travels. However, I have been stumped with coming up with a new blog title that feels right. So, in order to stop procrastinating with it, I've decided just to go back to the old site. After all, now rather than recruiting foreigners, I'm looking to be recruited by them. Works just fine. As things get settled, when and if I find a job down here somewhere, maybe I'll then change the name. Be thinking on it for me...