A Rugby Match, a 90-Mile Beach and a Luge Ride: Sightseeing in New Zealand
Sara Richardson | August 18, 2008
Connie Hong (left) and Sara Richardson get up close and personal with a lion during a visit at the Auckland Zoo.
Six weeks into my trip to New Zealand and I don’t feel like a tourist anymore. I’m familiar with the bus routes in Auckland, the largest city in the country. I buy groceries to cook dinner and make sandwiches for lunch instead of eating out — though I do still eat out at times to try the local cuisine. I work the ol’ 9-5 and I could tell you which TV shows are on which channels in the evenings (granted there’s only four channels here at the hostel). Driving the rental car on the left side of the road while sitting on the right side of the car actually seems normal in my head now (watch out for me when I get back!). And I’ve even picked up a few of the local phrases like “Sweet as” and “Good on ya’ mate.”
As settled in as I am into the new culture, it still really isn’t quite home. From the start I’ve unconsciously tried to connect things here with familiar things from home. Foodtown is the local version of Vons; the Warehouse is simply a Wal-Mart in disguise; I refer to the local university’s hub of shops as Price Center; and the Dairies and Superettes sitting on every corner are essentially 7-Elevens without a fuel pump. But I still feel a twinge of surprise when I see familiar places like Wendy’s, Starbucks and Westfield Mall around Auckland.
Regardless of how I feel, reflecting on the past weekends and browsing through my photos, it is apparent that I am still a tourist. I’ve ridden a tour bus on the sand down 90-Mile Beach, walked out to a lighthouse at Cape Reinga where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean and cruised through the ‘Hole in the Rock’ in the Bay of Islands—all in just one weekend. One Saturday I took a behind-the-scenes ZOOM Tour at the Auckland Zoo to feed giraffes, pet rhinos, feed hippos and stand 6 inches away from a pair of lions!
Richardson tries the sport of lugeing.
The next weekend, I watched the sunset while eating fresh-caught fish ‘n chips in the cutest little beach town of Raglan and traveled coast-to-coast in the matter of half-an-hour to visit the beach at Piha and climb Lion Rock. During our ‘Lakes Weekend’ two weekends ago, I went lugeing down a hillside overlooking Lake Rotorua, relaxed in a Polynesian Spa while watching steam come up from thermal vents in the earth, drove to mud pools and saw mud boiling in the ground, sampled twenty different kinds of honey, walked around Huka Falls and then watched my friends bungee (they spell it bungy here) jump at Lake Taupo (my knee surgeon suggested that I not attempt to undo my recent ACL reconstruction).
Mid-week we took a long lunch to get autographs and pictures with four members of New Zealand’s National Rugby team , better known as the All Blacks, (they were huge!)— I got a poster, rugby ball and T-shirt all graciously signed and wished them good luck. This past weekend we tramped (Kiwi for hiked) to the summit the 600-year-old volcano that made Rangitoto Island in the Auckland Harbour and then I donned my autographed shirt and went to the rugby match versus Australia and cheered our hearts out for the home team—we won! As you can see, I’m trying to live my trip to the fullest and based on how worn out I feel I must be doing a pretty good job—I’ll need another vacation when I get home!
Richardson and Hong (right) get autographs from members of New Zealand's rugby team .
Everywhere we visit everything is so green. We’re usually surrounded by gray, threatening-looking rain clouds and a cold wind, but there seems to be more plant-life occupying a single square meter than should be allowed. Invariably someone from ‘Team America’—the nickname given to the group of four US interns I travel with by one of our co-workers—will remark that such-and-such area would be “really nice in the summer” (remember, it’s winter down here). Still, it’s all so lush and green everywhere that you almost don’t notice how beautiful it is.
I also go into work to continue developing computational models of the female pelvic floor to assess muscle tone’s affect on ease of childbirth. We will be presenting our work during our last week to the co-workers, who have made us feel so welcome during our stay here. Then it’s off for a weeklong tour of the South Island before heading back to California and into the arms of loved ones.
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Sara Richardson is studying in Auckland, New Zealand's biggest city. |
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