You've asked for it. Now you've got it.

Greetings. So I feel a bit guilty for slacking on the posting of my pictures lately. It’s almost week three of my trip and I still haven’t posted up pictures from Fiji or Auckland even. It’s been hard trying to find the time to go through photos to resize and upload but I’ll say it’s been even harder finding the time to write something I’d be satisfied with. Currently, there’s half a dozen partially written entries that are sitting on my computer waiting to be finished. What with being constantly on the move and the limited opportunities in charging my laptop it’s been a challenge indeed. So I’m now finally taking the few moments I can while riding the Magic bus down to Dunedin to at least compose something about the Auckland photos. There won’t be much narrative because of time constraints but fear not! I’ve plenty of things that are brewing in this here noggin of mine that are hankering to get out. Trust that there will be heaps of verbal spewage in the upcoming weeks to get your proper read-on.

After too short a stay in Fiji, I was scheduled to fly out of Nadi (pronounced Nan-di) to Auckland the Friday of my first week. Prior to my arrival, I had made arrangements with my friend Jodhi who was going to pick me up from the airport and take me back to her house situated in the outlying areas of the city. I had actually met Jodhi during my first stay 2 years ago when I randomly strayed into the shop she was working in at the time and struck up a conversation about what options there were for night life. Turned out there were hardly any being a Tuesday night and we ended up exchanging emails and corresponding a few times since then. When I told her I’d be stopping in Auckland again on my travels she graciously offered me accommodations and her services as a guide to the city. Since my first trip had been all about sightseeing, I didn’t feel the need to push myself as a tourist this time around and so treated my stay in the city as more of an opportunity to experience it from a local’s perspective. Because of that, I’m sorry to say I don’t have many pictures of the cityscape but in compensation I’ll fill in the holes by digging up ones from the first trip. Yes, it is a little cheap but what can you do? I can forgo them all together but I’d like to maintain it’s integrity as a travel blog. Yea? Ok? Pbffft. ah who cares.


The welcome into Auckland International is a winding maze of blue stanchions.


Now that’s more like it.


Yup, just as I remember



Foodcourt on Ponsonby. See the food menu to the left of Jodhi’s head? Mexican. Didn’t know they could swim that far. OooooOOooo...ok, poor taste.


What’s a city without a big ole needle in the sky?


On our way to Pasifika. An annual festival celebrating the multitude of south pacific island cultures.


Wish I can remember what Island this was.


Kiribati has their own unique island culture. Just like Fiji and Tahiti have their own. They say Fijians are one of the friendliest. From what I encountered, I believe it.


No beer and not a lot of white people but plenty of stands! (the not a lot of white people comment is a commentary on how the cultures are still somewhat segregated).


I had mussel fritters earlier that day and almost got sucked into the mussel fritters vortex. So good.


One of those iconic New Zealand things. According to Jodhi the story is that back in the day these guys took leftover low grade meat, canned it into corned beef and marketed it to the natives. Well the maori’s took it and created wonderful recipes from it and now New Zealand is claiming it as their very own once again. Nice going white imperialists!


I don’t know half these brands but then again I’ve been out of the candy game for a while. What’s snickers?


The 1st stencil I spotted. I hear they’re a band.


K-road is the alternative shopping and nightlife district. Similar to the mission in SF.




There’s this hot new couture fad here where you incorporate foodstuffs like spaghetti into your fashion.



The main road that runs through downtown is Queens Road. At night it becomes pick-up central. Sort of like Courtney place in Wellington and Kings Cross in Sydney.




Auckland is so very clean. The comparison to LA is only because it lacks it’s own strong cultural identity and is very commercial. Not that LA doesn’t have it’s own distinct character. Actually I’m not sure what they are talking about.



This was off of High Street and Queen Rd. Another quaint shopping district with high-end boutiques, galleries and chi-chi dance clubs.


Old world charm always gets me.


Awww..it’s mother and son. Manaaki is Jodhi’s rad 10 year old son. I don’t meet too many kids I like but he’s definitely one of them.

Alright, so I tried to rummage up those pictures from my last trip and it looks like I’m gonna have to jump through some flaming hoops to get them so I just want to say that I will add them later as an addendum to this entry. Hope that’s ok!