Oceania: Day 15: 7-18-94: New To New Zealand: An Auckland Arrival

Paradise lost . . .

I arrived at the Nadi airport at 6:30 a.m. and waited for my 7:40 flight to New Zealand. The trip was relatively short (3 hours) and uneventful. I arrived at Auckland at about 10:45. The dull grey sky should have prepared me for the drastic change in climate, but my body was still in for quite a shock when I exited the airport -- one step outside in the 50-degree air and Fiji was already a distant memory!

-Overcast and Chilly (Toto, I Don't Think We're in Fiji Anymore)-

Outside the airport, I was approached by two attractive representatives from CCB Backpackers Hostel. Even though I had already made arrangements somewhere else, they were very persuasive, so I took them up on their offer. Of course, if I had known ahead of time that I would have spend the next 3 hours (!) in their van waiting for the ladies to recruit from other flights, I would have made a different decision. Well, at least I saved the $8 bus fare into town. Plus, the delay gave me an opportunity to sort out my New Zealand plans.

My time in New Zealand was severely limited (5 days) given the scope of the country, and I had to make some tough choices. Bob (the Kiwi racer who I befriended last year at the Alaskan wheelchair marathon) lived here, on the North Island, but he was 5 hours away from Auckland. All the cool stuff I wanted to do (bungee jumping, jet boating, etc.) took place in Queenstown on the South Island. Problem was, I soon discovered that all the travel options to get to the South Island were expensive and/or time consuming. In the end, I opted for the South Island trip, and scrambled to find the cheapest alternative.

My guidebook informed me that the regular round trip Air New Zealand airfare to the South Island was an astronomical $900. The student rate on Mt. Cook Air (a subsidiary of ANZ outfitted with smaller [40 seats], slower propeller planes) was a much more reasonable $218. Sounds great, right? There was just one catch: the Mt. Cook flight didn't go all the way to Queenstown -- it would only take me as far as Christchurch (indirectly, no less), which still left me with a considerable ways to go. Round trip airfare from Christchurch to Queenstown was an inconceivable $350 (more than Auckland to Christchurch?!), so that left me with bus transport. The guidebook stated that the student rate for the round trip bus ride was $150 and that the trip would take 10 full hours each way. Quickly calculating all the travel and layover time, I was shocked to realize it would take me more than a day to reach my final destination. And it was going to cost me a sizable chunk of change, to boot. Oh well. At least $368 is a lot better than $900!

When I finally arrived at CCB Backpackers, I was prepared to break out my credit card (and break down in tears) and fork over the $368 when the man at the hostel desk suggested a better option. While he could not offer a better deal on the airfare, he said he could arrange for a $70 bus trip, less than half the price quoted in my guidebook. This brought my transportation expense to Queenstown down to a more palatable $288 (though the price cut did nothing to reduce the exorbitant amount of time the trip would take). Add in the $299 cost of the "Awesome Foursome" extreme sport package, which I would purchase when I arrived, and you got a grand total of $587 -- not chump change, but not too terrible, either, all things considered. In fact, it was the absolute best I could do. I went ahead and booked my transport.

Since I spent most of the afternoon in the CCB van, I really didn't have any time to explore Auckland. Truthfully, I wasn't terribly disappointed, since it was pretty much a city like any other -- most Kiwis I talked too said that there was nothing much to see anyway. So I decided to do my laundry instead. The chore took longer than I expected because the hostel dryers were crap. After shelling out the money for TWO complete dry cycles and finding my clothes still damp to the touch, I hung up my clothing in my room and caught a vegetarian lasagna dinner in town. When I returned to the hostel, I found myself more exhausted than usual, and despite the early hour (9:30), I started nodding off. By the time my roommates (an Irish lass, a California dude and a Japanese couple) were prepared to go out for a night on the town, I was fast asleep.