auckland it is
hello there from auckland, new zealand.
i can't believe i'm in a new country already. more time in fiji definitely would have been good. by the way, the bus ride back to nadi was much less fun given the lack of random pop and hindi music and also the lack of sun - it was quite a gray day all across the island, as it turned out. we found a hostel alright, back in a sketchy part of town but secure and clean and all we needed it for was sleeping - we stayed in a dorm with two girls from kentucky and pennsylvania who were returning from 5 months studying in australia. we picked their brains a bit about everything oz and then wrote industriously in our journals before heading to sleep.
a few parting words about fiji. sadly, i leave that country with a couple of regrets, herein referred to as "shouldas." i hadn't really had any up until this point, but there are just a couple now. hopefully the list will stay short. we shoulda stayed in fiji a couple more days. one or two more on taveuni and we would have gotten to go to a fijian wedding with the guys and there was also a dance at the village we were invited to. also, dave the dive instructor who was a guest there would've taken us out for a try dive, which i know nabia would have been totally pumped about. in suva with the cheathams, sanjay was having a traditional fijian meke dance performance at school on tuesday (tomorrow) and it would have been awesome to see. so there's that. we shoulda stayed. We also shoulda recorded the guys singing on one of our iRivers. they have external microphones for just that purpose. now i'm wishing i could listen to their songs again - but we didn't want to break any of the moments. they woudn't have minded though. lastly, i shoulda taken a short walk with archie. he asked me to, 2 nights in a row, and i skirted the invitation both times. my brain jumps immediately to worst case scenarios, even when my instincts tell me that's not what's going to happen. it would have been a nice walk, i'm sure, more or less completely harmless. a sweet memory. now it's a shoulda instead. blech. and there were a couple of things i coulda bought, but nothing shoulda-worthy there. so that list isn't too long... yet.
Moving Right Along:
we got up early this morning (can't believe it's really the same day!) to catch a minibus to the airport. nabia realized she accidentally threw away her ticket from fiji to auckland - it was one ticket from hawaii to fiji to auckland and she discarded the second half thinking it was just the receipt from our trip to fiji... so we had quite the snafu trying to get her on to the plane. she ended up having to buy a new ticket (low blow to the wallet) even though she had all the receipts and the itinerary from our initial purchase. it sucked. then, to get into new zealand you need to have your onward ticket out of the country. they want to be sure you're not trying to stay there or anything. so nabia had an eticket for our flight to sydney. i happened to have a paper one because the woman we bought the tickets from hit the wrong button (as it turned out, i was better off). so air pacific doesn't have etickets and they couldn't really process nabia's onward ticket very well. anyhow, we got her a boarding pass eventually and then they kept bugging us on the plane. we swapped seats so first a stewardess came and tapped me on the shoulder, asking me to come to the back of the plane with her. it was like being called to the principal's office. what'd i do? she asked when i was returning to nadi. i said i wasn't. she made a face. i said: is there a problem? she said "i was told to check the ticket stub of the person in 22B" i said she wanted my cousin because we had switched seats. she didn't say anything - just kind of watched me as i walked down the aisle to get nabia and send her back. they gave her trouble. i gave her my paper ticket to show along with her eticket and yaddayaddayadda it worked out after a couple more trips to the back of the plane.
the 3 hour flight felt like nothing. i appropriately watched "around the world in 80 days" with jackie chan. not a good movie, but engaging enough to pass the time. we got in to auckland and proceeded to spend the next 3 hours or so in the airport: mailing our souvenirs from fiji (heads up moms), changing moola (the dollar sucks), making phonecalls to wwoof farms (who knew there were so many wwoofers down here? most of the places we called were full. but we found one. more on that when i get there end of the week), and collecting all the brochures about bus tours and kayaking trips and hikes and trains and all that jazz. we are extremely overwhelmed by being in a big city as well. this is the biggest city we've been in since san francisco, and though that was only 3 weeks ago, it feels like longer because we've been so many places in that time. so big buildings and chain restaurants and neon signs and big movie theaters (we almost saw bridget jones 2 but couldn't handle the neon - or the price)... it's almost too much to handle.
tomorrow is planning and auckland. we're staying at a yha hostel - it's discounted with our hostelling international cards and they have all these services attached because there a huge network all over new zealand and australia. a sorely needed load of laundry is being done as we speak. they also have a travel center we'll be taking advantage of in the morning - someone to perhaps help us sort through the mountain of brochures we collected. we need to get down to the south island by the end of the week without completely skipping the beauty and coolness of the north island, but without rushing too much or spending gads of money. a challenge to be sure.
ok. i'd best be getting back to the hostel and my freshly clean clothing (hooray!). This is about the farthest away i've been from nabia this entire trip so far. i'm in the internet cafe around the corner and she's back at the room. it feels strange to not be doing the same thing at the same time, but i think it's good (and vital) sometimes.
i really want to see "the incredibles." it's not here yet. maybe someday.
comments pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez.
oh, and if i don't have your mailing address, please send it to me. i have some glaring blank spaces in my address book, and i keep wanting to send people postcards but i don't have addresses. very frustrating. email me
okeedokee. no language stuff to share. they speak english here. but with accents. huzzah for accents. and the toilets don't flush the same way so i can't take a picture of it going around the other way - it's just a big rush of water. i'll keep my eye out though because i know people are excited about that. and i'll get some more pictures up as soon as i work out how i'm gonna do that from now on without having to install my programs on every computer.
really going now. 'nite.
i can't believe i'm in a new country already. more time in fiji definitely would have been good. by the way, the bus ride back to nadi was much less fun given the lack of random pop and hindi music and also the lack of sun - it was quite a gray day all across the island, as it turned out. we found a hostel alright, back in a sketchy part of town but secure and clean and all we needed it for was sleeping - we stayed in a dorm with two girls from kentucky and pennsylvania who were returning from 5 months studying in australia. we picked their brains a bit about everything oz and then wrote industriously in our journals before heading to sleep.
a few parting words about fiji. sadly, i leave that country with a couple of regrets, herein referred to as "shouldas." i hadn't really had any up until this point, but there are just a couple now. hopefully the list will stay short. we shoulda stayed in fiji a couple more days. one or two more on taveuni and we would have gotten to go to a fijian wedding with the guys and there was also a dance at the village we were invited to. also, dave the dive instructor who was a guest there would've taken us out for a try dive, which i know nabia would have been totally pumped about. in suva with the cheathams, sanjay was having a traditional fijian meke dance performance at school on tuesday (tomorrow) and it would have been awesome to see. so there's that. we shoulda stayed. We also shoulda recorded the guys singing on one of our iRivers. they have external microphones for just that purpose. now i'm wishing i could listen to their songs again - but we didn't want to break any of the moments. they woudn't have minded though. lastly, i shoulda taken a short walk with archie. he asked me to, 2 nights in a row, and i skirted the invitation both times. my brain jumps immediately to worst case scenarios, even when my instincts tell me that's not what's going to happen. it would have been a nice walk, i'm sure, more or less completely harmless. a sweet memory. now it's a shoulda instead. blech. and there were a couple of things i coulda bought, but nothing shoulda-worthy there. so that list isn't too long... yet.
Moving Right Along:
we got up early this morning (can't believe it's really the same day!) to catch a minibus to the airport. nabia realized she accidentally threw away her ticket from fiji to auckland - it was one ticket from hawaii to fiji to auckland and she discarded the second half thinking it was just the receipt from our trip to fiji... so we had quite the snafu trying to get her on to the plane. she ended up having to buy a new ticket (low blow to the wallet) even though she had all the receipts and the itinerary from our initial purchase. it sucked. then, to get into new zealand you need to have your onward ticket out of the country. they want to be sure you're not trying to stay there or anything. so nabia had an eticket for our flight to sydney. i happened to have a paper one because the woman we bought the tickets from hit the wrong button (as it turned out, i was better off). so air pacific doesn't have etickets and they couldn't really process nabia's onward ticket very well. anyhow, we got her a boarding pass eventually and then they kept bugging us on the plane. we swapped seats so first a stewardess came and tapped me on the shoulder, asking me to come to the back of the plane with her. it was like being called to the principal's office. what'd i do? she asked when i was returning to nadi. i said i wasn't. she made a face. i said: is there a problem? she said "i was told to check the ticket stub of the person in 22B" i said she wanted my cousin because we had switched seats. she didn't say anything - just kind of watched me as i walked down the aisle to get nabia and send her back. they gave her trouble. i gave her my paper ticket to show along with her eticket and yaddayaddayadda it worked out after a couple more trips to the back of the plane.
the 3 hour flight felt like nothing. i appropriately watched "around the world in 80 days" with jackie chan. not a good movie, but engaging enough to pass the time. we got in to auckland and proceeded to spend the next 3 hours or so in the airport: mailing our souvenirs from fiji (heads up moms), changing moola (the dollar sucks), making phonecalls to wwoof farms (who knew there were so many wwoofers down here? most of the places we called were full. but we found one. more on that when i get there end of the week), and collecting all the brochures about bus tours and kayaking trips and hikes and trains and all that jazz. we are extremely overwhelmed by being in a big city as well. this is the biggest city we've been in since san francisco, and though that was only 3 weeks ago, it feels like longer because we've been so many places in that time. so big buildings and chain restaurants and neon signs and big movie theaters (we almost saw bridget jones 2 but couldn't handle the neon - or the price)... it's almost too much to handle.
tomorrow is planning and auckland. we're staying at a yha hostel - it's discounted with our hostelling international cards and they have all these services attached because there a huge network all over new zealand and australia. a sorely needed load of laundry is being done as we speak. they also have a travel center we'll be taking advantage of in the morning - someone to perhaps help us sort through the mountain of brochures we collected. we need to get down to the south island by the end of the week without completely skipping the beauty and coolness of the north island, but without rushing too much or spending gads of money. a challenge to be sure.
ok. i'd best be getting back to the hostel and my freshly clean clothing (hooray!). This is about the farthest away i've been from nabia this entire trip so far. i'm in the internet cafe around the corner and she's back at the room. it feels strange to not be doing the same thing at the same time, but i think it's good (and vital) sometimes.
i really want to see "the incredibles." it's not here yet. maybe someday.
comments pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez.
oh, and if i don't have your mailing address, please send it to me. i have some glaring blank spaces in my address book, and i keep wanting to send people postcards but i don't have addresses. very frustrating. email me
okeedokee. no language stuff to share. they speak english here. but with accents. huzzah for accents. and the toilets don't flush the same way so i can't take a picture of it going around the other way - it's just a big rush of water. i'll keep my eye out though because i know people are excited about that. and i'll get some more pictures up as soon as i work out how i'm gonna do that from now on without having to install my programs on every computer.
really going now. 'nite.
posted by theonetheycallamy at 11/29/2004 04:53:00 AM
7 Comments:
I tried to comment yesterday but my computer was not cooperating. (It is Jordana by the way.) You really are amazing at describing the trip - I get a real visual image from each description. I know that we cannot truly appreciate the amazing things that you are experiencing, but I do feel that I am traveling along with you.
So I have one question for you - Are you both as tan and lean and relaxed and glowing and peaceful and beautiful as you sound from the wonderful experiences that you have had thus far(minus the Nabia-missing ticket experience)? I think I am going to have to self-tan on the plane so I am not so ghostly white when I join the adventure. I leave one week from tomorrow so let me know if there is anything from the States that you are missing terribly (that can be transported to NZ).
This is your dad speaking.......who the h... is archie?
However, I probably would have encouraged you to take that walk. You are doing amazing new things....different opportunities almost daily.
Your descriptions are so vivid it seems one can close your eyes and see what you see.
Fabulous !!
Ok, it's mom
I actually worked hard NOT to be the first to comment on this entry, and I did it!
I guess there will always be some "shouldas" out there, but you're still doing sooo much more than you'd ever dreamed you'd do...I do agree with Dad- we would've encouraged the walk with Archie (whoever he is!) if the gut instinct was good, but also I agree with Evan- don't feel you HAVE to do things you're unsure of just to avoid the "shouldas". Kind of a difficult balance to find, but I've got confidence in you. You'll get there. (and I bet there's probably another "memory-making" walk just waiting out there)
Looking forward to more, as always. Sorry you didn't get to visit more in Fiji...it does sound like you loved it. More wonderful experiences and people to come.
Love you
Hi ya Amy (and Nabia),
Testing one, two, three ... is this working ;o)
Noah here... it's great to be able to tavel along with you and I can't wait till 'we' get to Australia - I have so many fond memories of that place (I'll soon fill y'all in on the do's and don'ts that I know of for the land down under).
If I may share my experience with you regarding 'regrets' you may have about not doing certain things - unfortunately, you're going to have more so be prepared. You will however hopefully have the opportunity to return to certain, if not all, of the countries at some later point in your life ... it's good to keep some things to do for next time - suggestion: write them down and you can experience them the second time around.
OK, I shall stop this here as I don't want you to waste your money in Internet cafes reading my long comments ;o) but please allow me to leave you with one last thought: ENJOY YOURSELF!
Please pass this message on to Nabia ... I will comment on her blog next time, I promise.
Love to you both,
Noah (as mentioned above).
Amy....this is the zillionth (seems like!) time I've tried to post a comment to you at this site....no luck so far...maybe this time.....? Just want to send love and hugs and tell you that reading what you write is like being there...seeing, feeling, tasting....exhilaration, weariness, fun----all of it.
So keep on trying new things, being cautious in the process, and having a wonderful time. Much love to you and to Nabia....Elaine in Texas (Cindy's sister)
Ameeeeee!!
It's Elizabeth- I couldn't remember the webpage of your blog but got it finally, and I've been reading your adventures for at least two hours!!! (Not straight.. I'm at work so I keep coming back to it)
It sounds like you are having an unbelievable time- I hope that you enjoy each leg of the trip and I can't wait to read more!!
You know, you keep avoiding the question of who all these boys are, and you know I'm into all the boy details.. Ray? Archie? ;)
Have a blast-
Elizabeth
Okay, I'm finally caught up.
Why do you keep getting jiggy with guys who have old-man names? Grandpa Ray; Uncle Archie... if the next one is a Mervin or a Mordechai we need to have a serious talk.
Ara says she wants to go to Fiji. "Yo. Put this question on. Is it only the women in Fiji who have to wear something to signify if they're single or not, or do the men have to wear something too? If not, that would really annoy me."
Anyway, now is the time! Go! See the neon! Take pictures of backwards toilets! USE those iRiver recorders and get passers-by to say "Damien Cody"! TALK ABOUT FOOD! CARPE DIEM!
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