ENZED

Hello, I am currently in Mt Maunganui in ENZED (New Zealand). Had a bit of a journey getting here though. Amazingly enough though, the food situation (and by food situation I mean spending ridiculous amounts of money on extravagant meals at the hotel thinking Air NZ was comping everything) ended up working out really well. They ended up picking up all of my food costs anyway, so I only got charged for drinks. Which was still a decent amount, but still not as much as my meals. I thought there was some sort of error on my bill, and almost said something to the lady at the desk, then I realized I had won. The big dinners, and breakfast where completely wipes off the final bill! I only had to pay for drinks and internet usage, which wasn't too bad, considering I thought it was all going to be free... The Last day at the hotel was pretty funny. I finally used my coupons from Air NZ to get food (unfortunately I slept through breakfast, so I was starving by the time lunch rolled around), and amazingly enough the lunch coupon was for this beautiful restaurant right on the water. The voucher was good for a starter, main course and a dessert, but no drinks unfortunately. I ordered a big flamboyant fruity cocktail anyway that spared no stereotypical fruity tropical drink accouterments. I was practically sipping out of a tiny tropical rain forrest, but it was delish, and I bet nobody thought I was weird or gay. Anyway, ordered a starter salad that was super good, followed by a massive steak with fries and some unbelievable red wine reduction sauce and a like tropical hearty A1 type sauce, they were both incredible. So after this glorious meal I decided I deserved a little chocolate, so I ordered this fancy little chocolate mousse brownie ice cream deal. I would explain it more, but it wasn't on the plate long enough to remember what it looked like. I remember the brownies and the mousse were coated in like a chocolate shell, and the ice cream was near it. The best part was all I had to sign off for was the tropical forrest drink. Stoked. So anyway I meander back to my room holding my belly after this massive meal and my key doesn't work. I make my way to the front desk and tell them my key doesn't work and I am checking out soon and the French manager lady starts goin off at me telling me my check out was at 10am and I am supposed to be out of there. So I just kinda smiled at her and apologized, told her I was just going to go back in and grab my stuff and get out. This was at about 12pm and my flight isn't till 530pm. Apparently there was a big wedding party coming in or something. The French lady was freaking out, I was loving it. So anyway I convince her I am just going to go grab my stuff and end up staying in the room for another 2 hours. Started watching Eurosports in French again, took a bath, took a shower to wash off the bath bubbles, played with the hair dryer, crawled back in bed and eventually packed very slowly. Karma kinda got me though, I threw a pair of wet board shorts in my bag not really thinking and got all my t-shirts wet in my bag, didn't find that fun fact out till today. So yea, anyway, I check out, get this amazing bill, and Air NZ sends a bus to pick me and 3 other people up at the hotel to take us to the airport. For you that have never been on Air New Zealand, fly it. By far the best and coolest airline I have ever been on. Full 8 inch touch screen monitors in the back of every chair, with tons of music, Tv shows, movies, games, rugby matches, and tons of other stuff. And you can plug your ipod in via USB and watch anything on your ipod on the touch screen. And the wine is free. The flight flew by and was amazing. I was super tired, but didn't want to sleep because I was having so much fun with the Tv screen. Once I arrived in Auckland I was lost. Amazed I made it through customs, and biosecurity and all that, I wandered outside to find a taxi. It really threw me off that the flow of traffic was going to opposite way. And when I eventually got a cab the guy was kind of caught off guard when I tried to climb into his drivers seat (thinking it was the passenger side). The ride to my hostel was pretty awesome, even though it was at night, it was still so pretty. I finally got to my hostel at about 1130 or so, got all checked in and met my roommates. 2 Canadians and an Irish guy. Didn't really get to talk to the Irish guy much, he left super early in the morning. The 2 Canadians were funny, one was french Canadian from Quebec and was a real talker, and the other was from Alberta and super nice. I caught her saying "Eh" a couple times but couldn't catch her saying "aboot." And apparently not everyone in Canada wears all denim all the time. I was in was more denim than both of them combined. Anyway, I got to the hostel super late and they invited me to go out with them to this bar down the way a little. I accepted and had an amazing night of people watching and celebrating my arrival in ENZED. So all yesterday morning rolls around and I wake up and learn all about how the hostel shower situation works, the whole thing kind of reminded me of college. So pretty much all day yesterday I spent walkin around Auckland, grabbed some pretty delicious meals, no kebabs yet tho unfortunately, but did have my first meat pie. A chicken, egg and asparagus pie. It was mind blowing. With a big glass of orange juice, full on breakfast of champions. I was so fueled. I am so stoked on how far the dollar goes here, compared to Tahiti, it doesn't feel like I am burning through my money as fast now. I got to meet up with Andy a little later, a friend of mine who I am now staying with, who was in Auckland for a concert all day, and ended up hitching a ride up to Mt. Maunganui, where he lives, with him at like 11:30 at night. We didn't get here till about 3 this morning. We were driving his Dad's panel van as well, because we had to nab a mattress from his sisters house on the way back down from Auckland, so classic. Picture this super tall, white, 12 seater van just flying down the empty road with a mattress blacking all rear view, too funny. It might have just been so awesome because I was delirious and a little over served, but oh well. How he stayed awake during that drive is beyond me. I think I fell asleep 3 times trying to talk to him and keep him awake. But we made it, and it is so beautiful here. Unlike anything I have ever seen. We are a short walk from the surf, which I am about to go do in a moment, and fortunately enough there are some little waves coming in! Its been kinda stormy here the past 2 days, but looks like the sun is actually peaking out now kind of, so I am going to go play outside!