The land of egg farts and sydney

So I left to Rotarua and the drive down was beautiful, but not as incredible as I would've expected. It wasn't much nicer than a lot of the southwest like california, arizona and new mexico. mostly it was rolling green hills, which, don't get me wrong, is very nice, but it doesn't exactly qualify as one of the most beautiful places in the world. I think that the beautiful areas ppl talk about are mostly on the southern island of new zealand (even though most of the population lives on the northern island). Anyways, when i arrived in rotarua i found out there really isn't much to do there except go watch a show done by the natives which to me, seemed really ridiculous b/c it was just the native ppl putting on a show for tourists and not what they actually do in their regular lives. It would've been like a tourist from asia visiting america and going to one of those places in colorado where they pretend it's the 1800's and the old west. Really fake. I walked around rotarua A LOT and considering that the entire town is tiny, it was kinda boring. When I went to sleep I thought that my hostel smelled like an egg fart which was really odd b/c it was a really nice hostel and i even got my own room b/c it was pretty empty. the next day i woke up, put my stuff into storage and walked around and finally found the reason for the egg fart smell. The entire city is located on an active volcano which creates a ton of hot springs, geysers, etc and make for an interesting ecological tour, but makes the city literally smell like shit.

I found a hostel that was a little closer to the airport bus-stop and since I had to leave at 8am and didn’t get to my hotel until pretty late, I wasn’t really planning on doing anything special that night. But on the way to my room there were a bunch of ppl sitting and drinking in the hall (since it was sat night) and one of the ppl there said hi to me and asked me to join and it turns out that she was from LA and lived really close to me. There’s sort of an automatic connection you have with someone you meet from the US while traveling even though if you met them in the US you wouldn’t care. Anyways, I started hanging out w/ that whole group and it was hilarious. There were 11 ppl. 1 girl from new Zealand, 2 boys from chile, 1 from argentina, 1 from Canada, 1 irish, 1 scottish, 1 italian, 1 brazilian and then me and the girl from LA. The first thing I noticed was that the irish and Scottish guy passionately hated England, and everyone hated france, but the second thing I realized was that no one knew what the hell anyone else was saying b/c their accents were so strong and half the ppl there didn’t speak English as a first language. Here was a typical conversation

Me: how long you here for?

Chile guy: what?

Me: how long are u in NZ?

Chile guy: ah, how long?

Me: yes

Chile guy: I don’t know, I’ve been here 5 months so far

Irish guy: 5 months, aye, you must’ve been oot and aboot then around Auckland.

Chile guy: what?

Irish guy: do ye know the city well yet?

Chile: ah, yes. My English isn’t so good yet, still practicing

Irish guy: no sheet

Anyways, it was actually a really cool experience hanging out in that diverse of a crowd. Also, everyone there was pretty much a hardcore backpacker and when I was getting to know ppl I’d ask them “where are you from, how long you traveling etc.” but I found out after a little while that the question how long are you traveling didn’t really register with most ppl. I think of my trip as a set amt of time b/c I come home at the end of july and then that’s it. But most of the ppl there were just traveling w/ no end date. They would take random jobs as a bartender, waiter, etc. and not really have a set date to return so when I’d ask “when do you come back” I’d get this sort of blank stare that would pretty much say… huh? I’ll leave when I’m done. The girl from LA was only in NZ for a few days (she just came b/c it was memorial day weekend and took off an extra day or two b/c flights were cheap) and I’m traveling for about 2 months, but everyone else there had been away for at least 5 months and still had no end date so I thought that was a pretty cool thing. I found out that night that the south island of NZ (I was on the north island) was the more beautiful area but the north island was where most ppl live. We hung out until the early AM but I didn’t want to go to bed too late b/c I had an early flight the next day.

Overall NZ wasn’t great. There’s really nothing special about Auckland and Rotarua. If I came again I’d def go to the southern island but it’s prob best to go during summer since all of the places ppl recommended I go were beach places and not really practical in the winter since it actually gets pretty cold in NZ. Also, as far as the city of Auckland goes, there’s really nothing unique. Everything they have is just imported from somewhere else and often they take American or European things and sort of misinterpret them. Ie, there was a store near my hostel called “las vegas ski and surf”. Now, if anyone there had ever been to vegas, they would know that pretty much everything you can imagine has happened in vegas, except for skiing and surfing.

The next morning I met a guy at the bus-stop waiting for the bus to the airport who was from NY and he had been in Sydney for about month and gave me some tips. Mainly, that the main backpackers area in Sydney was in a place called kings cross, which is a bit of a walk from Sydney CBD (which I think stands for central business district or something like that) but it’s where all the bars and hostels are. He also told me a specific hostel to stay at which was called blue parrot.

So i took the train from the airport and walked from the CBD to kings cross, which was prob a 45 min walk and the first thing I noticed is that Sydney is AWESOME!!! It’s a pretty large city, that’s really clean and beautiful and the streets are way wider than they are most european cities which is nice b/c it gives the city a much roomier feel even in crowded areas. All the buildings and man-made things look similar to any other city (although everything in Sydney is very neat and well maintained) but the general topography is pretty different. Diff species of trees, some seriously crazy ass looking birds (some which are huge) and… NO SQUIRRELS!!! Whenever I’m w/ my dad in central park we always comment about how ppl take pictures of the squirrels and how it’s retarded b/c they have them everywhere. Well, our theory has been proven wrong. There are no squirrels in Sydney (although there are pigeons).

Anyways, Sydney is beautiful, kings cross is seedy as hell and was a truly terrible recommendation from the guy on the bus. The hostel he recommended was nice but really expensive for a hostel so I chose a diff hostel to stay in near there. I thought it was decent when I walked in but it turned out to be absolutely the most disgusting place I had ever been. The sheets that they gave me (which they said were clean) felt all oily and everything was dirty, it was really nasty, even for me. it didn’t look so bad from the outside but wow… nasty. I just sucked it up (since I had already paid) and it was fine although I had a huge bug bite when I woke up. Anyways, the one good thing about the hostel was that it came with a coupon for a free dinner at some bar. When I went to the bar I realized that oxford st was the huge gay area of Sydney and the bar I was at was a gay bar… but I’m not one to turn down a free dinner, so I ate and got out of there.

I just walked around there most of the night but kings cross is a really weird area b/c it’s a mix of gross looking seedy looking strip clubs w/ neon lights everywhere and aggressive ppl at the door trying to get you in right next door to really trendy bars and clubs. There was literally one block that alternated from strip club/trendy bar/strip club/trendy club/strip club/bar. The area hasn’t really decided if it’s going to be a shady area or a trendy one.

Today I mostly walked around the CBD including the opera house area w/ the botanic gardens and the harbor bridge. It was reaaally windy but it’s nice not having any hair b/c it really makes no difference to me. I haven’t shaved in since I cut my hair in NY about a week and a half ago and my facial hair and hair on the top of my head are about equal length right now. I’m going to try and have a nice mustache by the time I get to india if possible since according to dave, a stache in india demands respect.

It rained once every hr or two but it only rains for 5 min and then stops so it wasn’t much of a problem b/c you can always just wait it out under some covering. In a few minutes I think they’re actually having some crab racing at a bar near here so I may go check that out… and yes, the crab racing is exactly what it sounds like.

One final note that I forgot to mention in my first post. When I was stuck at customs in NZ they put me in a room similar to Jason bourne was in during one of the bourne movies when he was stopped at customs. I kept thinking of pulling a Jason bourne and kicking everyone’s ass, stealing some guy’s car and making a getaway, but then I remembered that I probably would’ve had to wait at baggage claim for a little while until my bag came around so it would’ve been awkward kicking the guys ass and then getting caught just standing there waiting for my bag. Also, I didn’t realize this at first but the way out of Sydney airport is kinda windy and I took a wrong turn once or twice so had I been running away, I prob would’ve ended up right back at customs. Thankfully when the guy walked into the interrogation room he was a good 80 lbs heavier than I was so it was a moot point.

Tomorrow I’m going to Melbourne, which seems to be every backpackers favorite city and so I’m excited about that. Then i'm off to Joanna and Ken in Brisbane, then up to Cairns which is the great barrier reef.

Sorry the post is so long but I don’t have that much internet access so it’s hard to post daily.

auckland, nz

Ok, so I landed in Auckland at around 6am and figured that I'd sort of walk around the city that day and get a feel for it and then travel out to the country for the rest of my time here.

The trip started off on a down note as I was held by customs b/c I didn't have proof of a ticket leaving the country. Apparently they've made this new law that just came into effect 40ish yrs ago that if you're going to a foreign country, you need to show that you have a ticket to leave the country as well. Anyways, they interrogated me, looked through my bag and other than few costco t-shirts and socks, realized i didn't have anything that interesting so they just let me go.

I got to the city and started looking around for a place to stay and to leave my bag. I finally found a place called Kiwi Hostel. I basically stayed there b/c I thought it was a funny name. a person from new zealand is called a "kiwi" so when i saw that name i thought of it being equivalent to a hotel in america called "white people hostel" although after thinking about it for about 10 seconds, i realized that it's not the same at all.

Anyways, i walked around the city for most of the day. I had a good time walking around the city since it was pretty nice outside but the city itself is really pretty boring. There are the a few restaurants and that's it. Also, the hills here are incredibly steep and everything is a hill so it's hard to walk around for so long. There's a small downtown-ish area that's right on the harbor which is nice. The coolest thing about Auckland is the color of the water. It's basically turquoise and is totally different than anything i've seen before in NY/LA/Bahamas, etc. But other than that, the city is really lame. It has a few restaurants and that's about it. most of my day was spent walking up a hill to get to my hotel and then walking around looking for food.

Since NZ is really famous for being a beautiful country and not necessarily for its cities, I'm going to get on a bus in about an hour to Rotarua. I have no idea what's there but I think they have some native culture stuff and some hot springs/volcano stuff. I don't really know much about it, but it's a 4 hr bus ride so i figured it'd be a good way to see the countryside. I met some ppl last night at my hostel (one of whom was actually from california, and so of course I said I was a native californian as well) who said it was a good place to go so I figured I'd listen to them.

the population that lives here doesn't seem that diverse. From what i've seen it's mostly ppl who are native NZ'ers, asians and white ppl with the asians being the most common. the positive about that is that you can find cheap sushi. Also, ppl here are reaaaally ugly. in comparison, brandeis girls suddenly don't look as terrible as they once did.

Goodbye People

Hello people,

I leave to New Zealand tonight at around 10pm LA time and arrive in NZ thursday morning... I have no place to stay and no itinerary once i step off the plane so any recommendations would be much appreciated. After new zealand i will be in sydney, melbourne, brisbane, cairns (great barrier reef), ho chi minh city (aka saigon), ha noi, singapore (maybe), shanghai, beijing, dubai, mumbai, delhi, agra, ladakh. goodbye.