Going Mobile

As much as we wanted to take the day to sight see, we decided to take care of communications details today. We got a mobile phone with a prepaid number for immediate needs and scoped out the wireless access situation in downtown Auckland. Evidently coffee shops here in NZ aren’t keen on offering free access to patrons, so most internet access is found in businesses specialising in computer related activities like web access or gaming. We hear Wellington businesses are a bit more prone to offer general wifi access, so we’re looking forward to checking that out.

We’d made plans to meet with our friend Tim the weekend after we landed, and he surprised us by pulling into town on Friday afternoon. He recommended a sushi bar downtown, so we hopped on a bus and headed back into the bustle. Sushi on a conveyor belt--oh yea! At this little bar you just grab a plate of sushi or sashimi as it goes by and stack the empty plates next to you. Each plate has a design on it that marks the value of the food, so you can eat whatever you fancy and the plates are counted up at the end of the meal. It was the best (and cheapest) sushi I’ve ever had.

After dinner we walked to the pier to look at the boats docks. Most of them were for sale, and we were able to plug Tim for info on sailing. He’s pretty handy if you want an explanation about boat related topics.

This particular boat was designed by a Kiwi to do two revolutionary things: pierce waves instead of going over them, and break the world circumnavigation record while powering its motor with biodiesel. The Maori designs painted on the hull draw on the cultural heritage of NZ and their attention to the environment. Its been in the works for a while and is close to starting its trip. Very slick.

After a few beers here and there to get out of the rain (surprise surprise, the rains tend to soak here) we took a lovely walk home under the stars.

Saturday morning we woke up early and headed down to Tim’s home in Tauranga. It was a gorgeous 2 1/2 hour drive down to the Bay of Plenty (on the east coast of the North Island). They call it the Bay of Plenty because you can basically bury any plant in the dirt and it’ll grow. Personally, I get the feeling that this is the case in a lot of areas of NZ. Once we left the Auckland suburbs we got to see what most of NZ looks like: rolling green hills with patches of trees and livestock. It looks a lot like Bavaria, actually, in that tracts of land are relatively small and each pasture or field is hemmed by a fence of trees or long grass. Of course the big difference between NZ and Germany is the subtropical plant life. There are fern and palm trees blanketing the ground under huge stands of evergreens. I get the feeling that if every human were to leave the island, the plants would simply grow over the buildings and reclaim the area as its own.

Once in Tauranga, we dropped our things off at Tim’s place then headed out to see a bit of the city. Tauranga is the fastest growing city it NZ and has a pop. of a little over 100,000. It sits on a natural harbour and has a great funky small town feel to it. The main beach sits down by Mount Maunganui and attracts surfers and sunbathers. Since it’s fall right now there weren’t that many people on the sand, but there were quite a few surfers taking advantage of waves. We spent most of today getting a rundown of the city from Tim. There’s definitely a cafe culture going on here, so we’ve been eating ridiculously well here. The night life here is pretty much the same as in Montana: all the stores close down and locals go out to eat, drink, and generally be social. We went out for Indian food and a movie. When in Rome...