By Mike Huber
Having chosen New Zealand as the first stop on the “Huber World Tour” was probably the easiest of the decisions I have made. Especially since the runner up was India and buying a Royal Enfield and roaming through that country for five to six months. Pipe dreams, but somehow I knew that would be too much to do solo for my first adventure (it surely isn’t out of the question for the future though). My sister had visited New Zealand and Australia last summer for the Women’s World Cup Soccer Match and couldn’t say enough good things about the countries, so I decided why not dip my toes in the travel waters instead of going off the deep end with a lead-weighted belt. So in October I bought a backpack, booked airfare, and passed a couple months with family and friends prior to leaving.
I left JFK on January 8th with a lot of anxiety and second guessing my decision on the long flight to Auckland. The flight was tolerable, not great, but I managed. Upon landing I was amazed at the efficiency of the airport. It was all digital entry and the walk off the plane took longer than passing through immigration and customs. Normally when I land in a foreign country I take off like a rocket and usually make several mistakes in my haste. I have no timeframe on my travels and I forced myself to sit, have a coffee, and fully gain my bearings before paging an Uber to bring me to a hotel I had pre-booked for two days in the event I had bad jet lag.
Arriving at my hotel around 11:00 a.m. I knew it was way too early to check in and for some reason I had a lot of energy. I found a local island on a map and saw ferries frequented it. What a great way to spend my first day. The island was like a little Martha’s Vineyard with shops, restaurants and bars. It also had a short hike up to the highest point on the island, Mt. Victoria. The hike got my legs moving again after my long flight. Once I began feeling tired I ferried back to Auckland. Upon disembarking the ferry I was starting to feel a bit tired so I thought taking one of those Lime Scooters would be a great idea. Well, I now know how I am going to die. It will be on a Lime Scooter. Not only was I starting to fade fast but the traffic drives on opposite the side of the road. Fortunately for me people are super nice here and I didn’t hear one F-Bomb as I clumsily navigated my way back to the hotel on the scooter. I was asleep within an hour. What a cool first day in New Zealand.
The following day I was still in a bit of a fog but felt I could do a 2-mile walk to the War Museum and learn to navigate the bus system. The War Museum was spectacular. I guess I never realized they were even involved in World War II. They even had a paratrooper regiment. After spending a couple hours it was time to grab a coffee for a much-needed boost. The thing I learned in college (maybe the only thing) is that coffee will physically wake you up but mentally it rarely does anything to get your brain flowing. Nonetheless, I felt refreshed and coherent enough to purchase a bus pass online. It was time to aim towards my next objective, a beautiful city overlook called Mount Eden.
Again, everyone here is super nice and welcoming. Upon boarding the local bus my pass didn’t work and I showed the pass on my phone to the driver. He laughed and told me to sit down and not to worry about it. I was scrambling to find out why it didn’t work and began talking to other passengers. This is when I learned I had bought a bus pass for Portland, Oregon. The bus passes had similar names. Okay, I will figure this out later and just focus on getting to Mount Eden for some photos. That didn’t happen. I was on the wrong bus and by this point it was a 2-hour loop to return to a bus stop near my hotel. I was pretty upset with myself for most the ride but in hindsight I had a free bus tour of Auckland and a story.
Clearly another solid night of sleep was required. However, before I could sleep I had to decide where I was going and would be staying the next night. I had heard of an island called Waiheke that was a 45-minute ferry ride away and thought that may be a good spot for a few days to relax as I continued to slowly lift the vail of jet lag. After booking an AirBnB for two nights and confirming the ferry schedule, it was time to sleep and prepare for the following day of travel to Waiheke Island.
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