Auckland

Our plane landed in Auckland at 4:00am New Zealand time, but it was 1:00pm the day before in Brazil so our bodies were really confused. We quickly went through customs and got our bags. We had decided that our best option in New Zealand was to rent a car, so we talked to some rental car places at the airport but they were the more expensive companies like Hertz and Avis and we knew we could get a cheaper price elsewhere. We decided just to take a taxi to the hostel and worry about renting a car later in the day. I had thought getting out of the airport would take a while but we actually made it to our hostel by 5:00am. We were staying at "Brown Kiwi" in the Ponsonby district of Auckland, which actually was a very upscale area. Our hostel did not have anyone working at reception until 8:00am and there is no free internet in New Zealand, so we pretty much had nothing to do. The hostel had given us the door entrance code so that we could drop our bags off and hang out for a few hours if we wanted, but we decided to go walk to the city center to see if we could find an open cafe with internet.

As we walked, the sun began to rise behind the city and it was a really beautiful view. The "Sky Tower", which is the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere, was definitely the focal point of the Auckland skyline.

After walking for a while, we found a coffee shop that offered an hour free wifi with purchase. We decided to use our wifi passes back to back so that we would have two hours of research time and the other person could peruse the Lonely Planet or the handful of tourist brochures we had picked up at the airport. First thing, we knew we needed to figure out the car rental. The best deal we could find was A2B car rentals, but we were a little confused about how to organize the ferry from the north island to the south island with the car. It seemed that a lot of the ferry tickets were sold out, so we thought maybe it would be better to do one rental on the north island and then a different rental on the south island. We decided rather than book online, we would walk to the car rental office that was about 20 minutes away.
When we arrived at A2B, it turned out that they couldn't rent us a car for the journey because we would be dropping the car off at a different location and they wanted all of their cars to remain in Auckland. They also told us that one of the ferry boats had broken so there was going to be practically no way to ferry our car across. We were really annoyed that we had walked all the way there and there was nothing they could do to help, but luckily there were quite a few other car rental places in the same area. We went and talked to Apex next, but the lady working there was completely useless and the quote they gave us was more than the one we had gotten from Budget Car Rentals. We decided to try one more place before throwing in the towel. The guy working at Jucy Car Rentals was extremely nice and walked us through all of our options a few times. We ended up getting the "El Cheapo" car (yes, that's really what it's called) and booking a ferry for 2:30am a week later that would take us to the south island. I was a little nervous about having to drive a stick shift that would now be on my left side, not to mention driving on the other side of the road but I was also a little excited about the challenge. Alyssa would not be driving since she cannot drive stick so it was all up to me.
After finalizing the car, we walked back to the hostel. I think that New Zealand is the most active country I have ever been in. Everyone was up early running or doing crossfit classes at the gym or doing boot camp in the park- it was nuts! I've never seen so many people work out.

The walk to the center of town is down hill from Ponsonby and the climb back up to the top was not that enjoyable, but I was trying to man up and fit in with the exercise focused Kiwis. We stopped at the grocery store on the way back to get some food for lunch. We had decided to cook as many meals as possible in New Zealand since everything is so expensive and we thought we could make sandwhich and salad items last for multiple meals. Once we arrived back at Brown Kiwi, we were able to check in and get our room. We were in a four person girls dorm that looked a lot like it was someone's bedroom. It was kind of homey in a way.

It was still early in the day at this point and though we had already accomplished so much, we decided to make the most of our day. We thought it might be a good idea to get haircuts since our hair really needed it. We had wanted to get them in South America but were afraid that we might not be able to properly communicate how we wanted it cut in Spanish. As we searched for a hair salon, I saw a waxing place and decided it would also be a smart move to get my eyebrows waxed. Back in LA, I would wax them every two weeks and since it had been four month since the last waxing, I was beginning to look a little like Frida Kahlo, lol. The waxing cost $18, which is exactly what I pay in the US, but apparently here they don't like to wax the top of your brow, only the bottom, so I would have to tweeze the top later. The girl didn't do the best job, but they were definitely improved nonetheless. We found a hair salon just down the road from there and they were able to take us both without an appointment. They wanted to cut a lot more off then either of us were going to allow, but I let my guy cut three inches off. I have to admit, my hair is SO much healthier now. I didn't quite realize how shaggy it must have looked. With that task completed, we decided to go to the grocery store to pick up food for dinner that night and hang out at the hostel for a few hours. We had read in Lonely Planet that the best time to go to the Sky Tower was at sunset, so we would head down there around 7:00pm so we could be there in time.
Walking up and down the steep hills into town was getting to be a bit tiring and although it was good exercise, my calves were definitely sore. We walked to the Sky Tower which is located in a giant center called Sky City. It reminded Alyssa and I of being in Vegas. It had a giant casino, tons of clubs and restaurants and a very nice hotel. They were all decorated for Christmas which I loved but still find strange since its so hot here.

We bought our tickets for the tower and were able to get the student price using our U of A CatCards (I have no idea how long I will look "college aged" but I will continue to get student pricing as long as humanly possible!). We took the elevator up the 60 floors which always makes my stomach sink since I am scared of heights and the front and the floor were glass so you could see how high you were going.

The Sky Tower is the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere and cost New Zealand $85 million dollars to construct. We had an amazing view of the city from the sky deck although it was cloudy so we didn't get much of a sunset.

We headed back to the hostel after sunset, prepared our chicken and salad for dinner and headed to bed since were exhausted from a full day of exploring without any real sleep.

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