Uncategorized – You Can Take The Girl Outta Texas…

The one where I made friends

With the housing situation taken care of, I had a LOT of free time on my hands. Turns out there’s not really a whole lot of super New-Zealand-y stuff to do in the city. Everything that’s remotely interesting is *just* beyond where the buses and trains go. I had to step up my meetup game and actually meet some quality people. I was going to at least one meetup a day, sometimes two, in the hopes that the numbers game would eventually pay off. I haven’t yet mentioned how *lovely* the August weather is in Auckland–there’s a reason for that.

But I still made the effort to go to something every day, arriving soaked to the bone and wearing at least 2 more layers than anyone else there. Needless to say, I didn’t handle going from 100 degrees to 40 very well. I hiked, I watched rugby, I went shopping, I sat through endless coffee and cafe afternoons, I went to the zoo, I drank. I was getting a bit bored and considered not trudging through the rain and wind to go to the wine festival downtown with a giant gaggle of girls. I think something like 35 girls showed up to this meetup, and in true meetup/girl style, everyone was at least 30 minutes late. We all waited politely by the entrance for any stragglers, but dang it I had been without wine in a social setting for 30 minutes! A small group of us broke off to hit the bottle early, and that was the beginning of the end!

We sampled wine from all over NZ, getting tipsy and being “those” girls at a semi classy festival. I do feel bad for the poor chap running the cheese sampling station. All six of us just about barreled him over wanting him to feed us free cheese so we didn’t have to stop drinking long enough to go to a restaurant. But thankfully we had enough sense to keep the party going and not let this night die out as another meetup failure. We made an equally loud spectacle of ourselves at a restaurant, where a poor old chap bought us all a couple of shots. I ended the night dancing my heart out to Katy Perry in the gay bar across town, and what a good night it was!

It definitely made me miss my friends back home even more, but finding some cool chicks to hang out with here has been the best thing to happen to me yet. We’ve added some to the group, brought some around who didn’t make the cut, and we’ve made the most of Auckland so far! All day brunches on the waterfront, all night parties at each others’ houses, trying new foods and bars, and making fun of guys who try to impress us. I’m definitely starting to like Auckland more…now if we could just get some warm sunshine!

How online dating helped me find a good flat

Bear with me, this post may sound completely naive and whiny….but finding a decent place to live has been the hardest thing about Auckland so far. Now I accept that this might be because I’ve never lived anywhere farther than an hour from my hometown, and I’ve never lived in a city, and I’ve certainly never lived in an expensive city halfway across the world. So a lot of my difficulties could easily be just growing pains and learning curves of life in a new city anywhere. But thankfully house hunting and online dating are so similar that I had this one under control…

It always seems like such a good idea at first, and it’ll be SO easy

NZ has an awesome website to buy and sell just about anything you could imagine, so of course that’s where I started my search. I looked before I left the US, and there were *tons* of 1 bedroom apartments listed right in the heart of the city, and in my price range to boot. I gave myself 10 whole days to find a place to live and get settled in before I had to start work. In Dallas I could have found a nice cheap apartment in a great part of town, ready for me to move in immediately, in less than an hour! I flipped through pages of listings, painstakingly building a portfolio of favorites based on their few pictures and 2 sentence descriptions. Optimism, I had tons of it!

Then it quickly becomes an all-consuming job

…..until I actually started looking at places. I quickly found out that one does not simply make an appointment to view an apartment. All apartments units are independently owned/managed. So there could be 3 vacant apartments in the same building, and you might never know unless you happened to know a guy who knows a guy who’s renting one of the apartments. I pounded the pavement and texted/called people all day every day trying just to SEE apartments. I looked at roughly 6 apartments per day all over the city, each one more depressing than the next!

Absolutely NOTHING is as good in person as it is online

What I didn’t realize about Auckland is the sheer number of students and immigrants who live here. The university draws heaps of students, and the skills shortage list draws heaps of immigrants for work. As a result, there is a pretty huge housing shortage. Most of the 1 bedroom apartments I looked at (and we’re talking *small* apartments, around 500sqft) were occupied by several people. One of the first places I looked at was so adorable online–fully furnished (and they were buying new furniture!), right in the CBD, gets the north sun so it’s warm, and was an actual 1 bedroom, not an open plan. After seeing it in real life, I’ve realized that *nothing* is as charming in real life as it is online. The reason they had to buy new furniture was because FIVE guys were living here, and the place was absolutely destroyed. No amount of cleaning could have saved it. Oh and did I mention they were still asking $1650/month for it?

At some point you give in and lower the standards you thought you had

Unfortunately for me, after 6 solid days of looking (you did the math right, I saw over 30 apartments), I had found nothing that I would even consider living in. I was staying at a nice apartment with an awesome couple at the time, and they suggested that I find a roommate. I refused for the entire week, still trudging to apartment after apartment and getting more depressed. Thankfully for me, my airbnb host is amazing, and she looked for a roommate for me. Every night I would come home and tell her how horrible the apartments were, and every night she would watch TV with me and send me links to roommate postings. Finally I gave in and contacted one that was just outside of the CBD, in the suburb where I would be working. It was a cute, clean flat that was more modern than anything I’d seen yet.

Occasionally you DO find a unicorn

I am SO HAPPY that I came to see the apartment. Once I saw it, I couldn’t see myself living anywhere else! The guy who was renting it was in his late 20s, very smart and we had nice conversation, especially for being perfect strangers. The apartment was in just as good of shape in person as it was online! The bedroom I was looking at even had its own bathroom, and looked out onto the patio. Once I saw the place, I was smitten–I *had* to have it. So, just like dudes, the nice ones are few and far between, so you have to work to get them. It really felt like a job interview, trying to figure out what I could do to make myself the most desirable candidate!

You know when you’ve found “the one”

Thankfully I was contacted the next day to come and meet the 3rd person who was living in the apartment to see if we all got on well so that they could decide between me and the other candidates. I put on my cutest outfit and my best charming smile, gave myself a Stuart Smalley pep talk, and had my airbnb host look me over with the critical eye of someone she’d consider sharing a kitchen with. I met the other flatmate (a girl), and the three of us sat awkwardly at a small table and made small talk. It was truly one of the most awkward first dates I’ve ever had. I’ve never understood people who weren’t themselves on dates, who were constantly trying to be charming and cool and impressive…until I was that person, desperately seeking the approval of two strangers from the internet. Thankfully we all got along like gangbusters, and I went home with the successful-first-date high. I was singing from rooftops, shouting my love for my new place, exactly like an annoying teenager in love.

You can’t imagine how your life was before

I’ve heard so many horror stories about terrible roommates–messy, mean, weird, cruel. Our little place is actually a home–we watch TV on the couch, stay in on Friday nights, take walks to the park or the beach, dish on our love lives, and listen to each other’s whining. Even though I’ve always lived by myself, now I can’t imagine not living with my flatmates. Awwwww…..

Being a tourist in your new town

Alternately titled “Misadventures in Meetup”. Now that I’ve semi settled in to Auckland, I’ve been trying to find ways to keep myself busy in a place where I know no one. I think people like me are the main reason meetup.com is so popular. I may or may not have joined 20 meetup groups in Auckland so far….go big or be bored, right?

First up, a co-ed walking/hiking group, who I was meeting for an evening walk through the Auckland city center, along the coast, past the Prime Minister’s house and the Auckland Museum, and ending at a bar/coffee shop. I met a lovely English girl around my age who had just relocated to Auckland as well. She was living in a backpacker’s hostel and looking for work as a teacher. We chatted over how expensive things were here and how odd it is to be in a new city and not know a soul. But of course, no meetup is complete without obnoxious boys who try to hard at everything. You know how male dolphins will separate a female dolphin and force itself on her? The guys of meetup have tried to employ this very technique, but aren’t as smart as dolphins. The girl and I are trying to see the sites on a walking tour, yet everywhere I look there’s an obnoxious guy in my face wanting to know what I’m up to this weekend. Socially awkward guys of meetup, GET A CLUE. The more you press us, the easier the decision will be for us to block you before you can send 10 unanswered messages. Anyway…besides the annoying boys, the walking tour was nice

The only picture I managed to break away from the herd and snap. Hence the terrible quality, I was trying not to be noticed.

Next up was an all-girls outing, yay! Now I’m not normally a fan of the zoo, but I am a fan of making girl friends here. So on a nice sunny day, I ventured 45 minutes across town on a bus to see an elephant that had just arrived at the zoo. I met 11 girls from meetup, and all of them were so fun! We took the obligatory group and “fun” photos on the way in–nothing like meeting a group of strangers and trying to look like we all belong together after having known each other all of 60 seconds!

highres_440665111 — Ok, everyone, arms around each other! Let’s look like old friends!

highres_440665085 — Oh look, a lion! I know we don’t know each other yet, but we’re going to have to sacrifice one of you so the rest of us can get away. It was nice meeting you!

We had a lot of fun, lots of laughs during the day. We stopped mid-afternoon to have lunch at the zoo cafe, which was really nice. And we saw a Kiwi bird!! I feel like as a proper NZ’er, I should know a lot about Kiwis. But I failed at step 1: identifying a Kiwi. Kiwis are apparently very very shy and nocturnal, so they’re in a dark quiet enclosure inside, and you can’t walk quickly or make any loud noises. And even still, it’s not guaranteed that the Kiwis will be out and about. Someone pointed at a giant chicken-sized bird excitedly, and I thought aww how cute, someone’s never seen a chicken before. But no, as always I am the jerk, because it turns out Kiwis are chicken-sized birds with reeeeeeally long beaks. Who knew! So…I’ve officially seen a Kiwi, NZ might as well give me residency already. Other highlights of the zoo trip were learning that a firefox is a real animal (and a super cute one at that!), seeing a wallaby for the first time, seeing a tasmanian devil and learning that they’re actually just large rodents, and crawling through the tunnels underneath the meerkat enclosure. What’s that you say, they’re made for 8 year olds? I’m not afraid to push an 8yo out of the way to poke my head up into a meerkat colony.

highres_440665353 — Seeing if the meerkats will accept me as one of their own

Tasmanian devil, with my feet for size comparison. Looney Tunes, you lie! There's nothing ferocious about this little guy — Tasmanian devil, with my feet for size comparison. Looney Tunes, you lie! There’s nothing ferocious about this little guy

Who doesn't want to grow their veggies in giraffe poo?? — Who doesn’t want to grow their veggies in giraffe poo??

The Auckland Zoo is highly recommended–it’s quiet, has really nice landscaping, and you can get a lot closer to the animals than at other larger zoos. It’s not too expensive, at $28/day.

Now to continue my touristy NZ weekend! Besides the beaches in Europe, where can you find men in the shortest shorts possible before being indecent? That’s right, a good old rugby game. I joined yet another meetup group to watch the NZ All Blacks vs Australia’s Wallabys (yes, that is their real name). I never knew that Australia and NZ were so competitive! Everyone in meetup was so excited to explain all the rules and nuances of rugby to me, and to tell me why NZ is the greatest country on the planet, and why Australia is the armpit of the universe compared to NZ. We went to a local pub that was showing the game on the big screen, and people were crammed in to watch. Rugby is actually a really fun sport to watch, as the action almost never stops. Peoples eyes can get gouged out, they can lose a limb, and they’d still be playing. American football, I’m looking at you to learn a lesson about not having downtime! There were NO commercial breaks except at halftime. Can you imagine such a sport??

The All Blacks are famous for their pre-game Haka. Just take a minute and go look at that picture. A whole team of muscly men do a tribal dance to intimidate the other team, complete with yelling, tongues, crazy faces, and throat slitting motions. It’s really fascinating, and it brings all of NZ to a standstill watching. The game was really intense, with NZ losing in the end. The general consensus was that all of NZ would be in a bad mood for the entire next week or so–rugby is so ingrained into people’s lives. Oh, and I noticed that the All Black’s office is next door to mine in the same building, so I’m hoping to get lucky enough for a player sighting sometime soon!

All in all, it was a nice weekend. Sometimes being a tourist can be fun, if you’ve got the right crowd with you to explore! And watching the game definitely made me a fan of rugby–I absolutely have to go see a live game now!