To begin the next installment of the story we continue on the bus. Between Rotorua and Cambridge I met a woman, I guess around 27. She is from Gisborne. She has a masters. Her undergrad was in political science and something else I forget, honours in development studies, and her masters topic was about the links/effects between music and cultures, which I think sounds really interesting. I had been thinking about the fact I would meet lots of interesting people on my travels and I think I will try to remember them in this blog, so the woman on the bus will be the first of the interesting people I tell you about.
She lived in Spain for a year, initially really near where my family used to have a villa on the Costa Blanca. Then she went north because her plans in Moraira fell through. Then she came back to NZ for summer and on tuesday she is going back to Spain. We talked about our studies and languages. It was good conversation. Then she got off the bus and some guy took her seat but I didn't feel like talking anymore so I turned my attention to games and music.
In Auckland I met up with highschool friend, Steph, and uni friend, Lauren. Lauren drove me round a bit so I saw more of Auckland/North Shore than I had before. Then Steph and I walked along K Road in search of dinner, which ended up being at a very tasty Mexican place which satisfied my burrito cravings. Both needing to be up early we obliviously got an early night (read: couldn't stop chatting because it had been so long so lost out on sleep).
5.40am rolled around and I hauled myself out past the AUT night security staff pool game and along to the bus stop, where the bus proceeded to not show up and a Japanese man got chatting to me and kept telling me I am cute. I am not so sure about that, especially at 6am. Thankfully a shuttle driver doing a hotel pick up next to the bus stop offered to take me and the Japanese man for $10 each, which is less than the airbus costs anyway. Made the airport in plenty of time, found avocado sushi as my best breakfast option, then onto the plane. As I walked along the tunnel onto the plane I considered that it was my first international flight alone. I have flown a lot of times, but I guess that is a pretty big step.
On the plane the safety video was the best I have ever seen. Air NZ's current video is "Air Middle Earth" where the staff take on various Hobbit roles, complete with cameo from Peter Jackson. The acting wasn't the best but it was overall great and actually pretty funny.
I have finally seen Pitch Perfect. I put that on first and loved it, then watched About Time, which was alright. We made it to Melbourne a few minutes early. Then we sat on the runway for two hours because the airport had had a security breach and full evacuation in the morning so delayed departures were holding up all of the gates.
When I finally made it through I picked up my arranged shuttle and checked in at my luxury accommodation - a backpackers, where I am sharing a 12 bed female dorm. So far it actually seems good. Not too noisy, but it is a sunday so I guess other nights could be louder.
The rest of the story so far just involved wandering around the CBD, getting kumara (sweet potato) fries from Lord of the Fries, and being super tired by 8pm local time so escaping to my dorm room to write this then read and sleep.
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