By Nora Wolcott
As of today, it has officially been one week since I touched down in the City of Sails: Auckland, New Zealand. Now, a few bruises and many mosquito bites later, it seems remarkable that so much has happened over the course of 7 days. My first tramping trips, tastes of the new city and bonds with the locals and fellow international students alike happened in one large adrenaline rush.
Tramping, or hiking as I naively called it back in the States, was one of my main objectives coming to this mountainous country, and so as soon as I recovered from jet lag I set off to find a trail I could dig my teeth into. The first that came to mind was Mount Eden, a trip the locals treated with nonchalance, but for me was quite striking. Mount Eden is the highest of the almost 50 volcanoes in the Auckland area, and a mere 30 minute walk from my dorm. The hike up this startlingly green crater rewarded me with expansive views of the Auckland skyline, and the Pacific beyond. Over the 15,000 years since the volcano last erupted, the fertile mountain has given rise to leafy forest that gives travelers like me respite from the sun. Pictures don't do justice to the sheer size of the crater, but I hope the image below can give you a concept of the scenery.
One of the very first things I did upon arrival, having thrown all my snacks away before customs (apparently an unnecessary measure since the security coming into the country was extremely slack), was to seek out a grocery. New Zealand has a high East Asian population, which explains why the closest grocery to campus is Lim Chhourr, a Chinese-owned business that provided an extensive, if confusing, range of selections. Foreign food is one of my favorite parts of traveling to a new country, so I endeavored to be an adventurous shopper. My adventurousness paid off for some items, but not quite everything. Below you can see some highlights of my haul.
There were some absolutely delicious results from this trip, including the prawn & chives dumplings, masala peas and ramen selected from a wall of hundreds of different kinds of brightly colored packaged noodles. However, if you're ever stopping by downtown Auckland I wouldn't quite recommend Chowhound Squirrel (I don't know what squirrel food tastes like, but probably something like this) or yogurt pudding, which turned out to be more like chunky watery jello. Not pictured are other culinary revelations from my trip, which have led me to the conclusion that I will eat nothing but Potato Tops and Tim Tams for the duration of the semester. Hopefully all the tramping will counteract the effects of eating nothing but potpies and chocolate cookies for the next 4 months.
I rounded off the week with a trip to Goat Island, a gorgeous turquoise spot just 90 minutes North of Auckland. The outing was part of a field trip sponsored by my Marine Ecology class, which apparently is how labs are conducted here (I'm not complaining). Between hours measuring nitrite uptake in zooplankton and seaweed, I explored the cliff-topped beaches and plunging reefs of the island. I'm quite glad I brought my snorkel from home, as it really came in handy on this trip. My newfound Kiwi friends mocked me for marveling at the hundreds of sheep roaming the mountainside, the sheep being more than commonplace to them, but to me it was a highlight of my weekend.
I rounded off my first week with a trip to the Chinese Lantern Festival ushering in the year of the dog, a spectacular event that was much more dramatic than anticipated. Thousands of lanterns hung from Kahikatea trees and sprung up from the ground in the shape of dragons, swans and Chinese villagers, illuminating rows of stands selling Asian street food; skewers stocked with heavily seasoned squid and prawns and octopus to accompany coconut and pineapple juice sipped directly from the fruit. As I watched the fireworks crown the night, surrounded by my cliché group of new friends, I figured that it had been a pretty good week.