PLANS GONE AWRY AND WE HAD AUCKLAND ALL TO OURSELVES FOR 2 DAYS
Like I've always said, chance and circumstance can easily turn the most well thought-of plans moot. We were supposed to fly on a Saturday evening but as it goes, we had to fly on a Thursday night instead, with only a day's notice. 2 days short of preparations. Whatever timetable I came up with went in shambles and I would have thrown a fit except, I could hardly complain against the graciousness that was bringing us to this trip. So I made the most of what time I had and now on hindsight, I find it really was enough.
The flight in was uneventful, as are all the flights of SIA, thankfully. There was a little turbulence but that has stopped bothering me since when, I can't remember. For the next 9 or so hours, I tried to do a little work, watched a movie and slept a lot.
We landed in Auckland at a little past 11 in the morning. After all that sleeping, we find that we still had a good part of the day to spend. Maybe it ought to strike me with considerable chagrin although I couldn't think why, but it still makes me smile to remember that the first thing I ever did in Auckland... heck, in New Zealand, the very first thing I ever did past the immigration, before getting out of the airport, was to take a dump. Seriously. Now why would I even mention that? For no reason except perhaps that it's there to be mentioned. So excuse me, Auckland, but you did pluck me out of my tropical abode quite unexpectedly. Quits?
My first up-close encounter with a New Zealander was with our cab driver. He was Indian of the likes we don't often see around here in Singapore... with a whirly turban donned on his head. He was quiet for most of the trip, so unlike the friendly cab drivers we have here. But that didn't faze me. See, I noticed earlier on how strangers would rig up a smile as you pass them by. I decided then that we were in a city of friendly people, a notion I was afforded the gratuity of proving true till the end of our stay.
And it's nice, always nice, when you get into a strange city and know that there are people there waiting to welcome you. And so it came as a pleasant surprise that minutes after we were lodged in our hotel room, the phone rang. It was CG, calling in long distance from Christ Church to give us a warm welcome and see if we managed to settle in fine. I thought that was mighty sweet and thoughtful of her. Afterwards, I made a call myself to another blogging friend, the one who was right there in Auckland and who we were hoping to meet up with sometime during the week, Kiwipinay. I caught her at the office and made arrangements to meet that night. Foiled arrangements, so we agreed anew to meet up the following day.
Papa had to see a client that afternoon and within minutes of checking in, he has showered, dressed and made plans with their distributor. Well then, have a good day, my dear, bye and see you later.
I pivoted around the room... oh yes, alone again.
But not lonely, not this time.
I stashed our things into the cabinets, took a shower loaded up my backpack and was out in no time.
I didn't do that. I didn't go wandering off alone in strange places. Didn't do that in Beijing for fear of not finding my way back cause I didn't have enough Chinese in me to ask for directions. I didn't do it in California cause I didn't have to... I never had a moment to be alone. Not in Genting cause that was a short weekend tryst Papa and I meant to spend together and solitary wanderings were totally out of the question. Not in Bintan, where we went everywhere as a couple of pairs.
And I loved it.
I loved getting to know the city by myself, with its streets going uphill and down like a mini-San Fransisco. I loved walking along Albert Street, crossing onto Victoria and finding the bus terminal where I booked our tickets for our bus trip to Wellington the following weekend after Papa's conference. I loved knowing that Victoria went quite aways, heading on to the Victoria Park Market, where I would be spending one weekday afternoon lunching alone, and sitting on my table afterwards, reading a book, without a care for the hour of the day... so English-like. I loved staring up the Sky City tower, bending backwards from my waist and almost toppling over with my backpack on the lead. Most of all, I loved how I discovered Denny's, just across the tower, where we would be having breakfast everyday of the coming week that by the end of it, I was waving hellos with the service crew.
It would be Monday evening, at the welcome dinner, before I met up with the rest of the group... some whom I've known from previous encounters on previous conferences whenever I would manage to tag along, others whom I would be meeting and shaking hands with for the first time. For those 2 days, however, Papa and I had Auckland all to ourselves, thanks to some thwarted plans.
This isn't going to be a travelogue. I couldn't, much as I would want it to be. There were just so many things I saw that telling about them chronologically would put me at risk of failing in accuracy. But in the coming days, I would tell you about some of the sights, as my eyes saw them, of the flavors (which wouldn't give me much to go by... unconsummably-sized steaks, bland all over, perked up a little by good wine that came by the bottle, would pretty much wrap up most of it), and everything, oh everything, about how I felt.
I loved New Zealand at first sight, from what I've seen of it in Auckland. Where the weather was cold, the terrain harsh, the people were warm and unpretentious. Towns and cities mounted against hills, and mountains and lakes and green, green everywhere you looked, patched up here and there with tresses of colorful vines and the non-occasional wildflower. In the city, there would be shops and restaurants budding up seemingly right where you would expect to find them, along streets that would wind up right where you would expect them to go.
Like I told Le-Anne, the wife of Norman, Papa's colleague, whom I first met in China, I love Auckland... if only because it's not as complicated as LA nor as incomprehensible as Beijing.
It's a city I seem to understand.
Like I've always said, chance and circumstance can easily turn the most well thought-of plans moot. We were supposed to fly on a Saturday evening but as it goes, we had to fly on a Thursday night instead, with only a day's notice. 2 days short of preparations. Whatever timetable I came up with went in shambles and I would have thrown a fit except, I could hardly complain against the graciousness that was bringing us to this trip. So I made the most of what time I had and now on hindsight, I find it really was enough.
The flight in was uneventful, as are all the flights of SIA, thankfully. There was a little turbulence but that has stopped bothering me since when, I can't remember. For the next 9 or so hours, I tried to do a little work, watched a movie and slept a lot.
We landed in Auckland at a little past 11 in the morning. After all that sleeping, we find that we still had a good part of the day to spend. Maybe it ought to strike me with considerable chagrin although I couldn't think why, but it still makes me smile to remember that the first thing I ever did in Auckland... heck, in New Zealand, the very first thing I ever did past the immigration, before getting out of the airport, was to take a dump. Seriously. Now why would I even mention that? For no reason except perhaps that it's there to be mentioned. So excuse me, Auckland, but you did pluck me out of my tropical abode quite unexpectedly. Quits?
My first up-close encounter with a New Zealander was with our cab driver. He was Indian of the likes we don't often see around here in Singapore... with a whirly turban donned on his head. He was quiet for most of the trip, so unlike the friendly cab drivers we have here. But that didn't faze me. See, I noticed earlier on how strangers would rig up a smile as you pass them by. I decided then that we were in a city of friendly people, a notion I was afforded the gratuity of proving true till the end of our stay.
And it's nice, always nice, when you get into a strange city and know that there are people there waiting to welcome you. And so it came as a pleasant surprise that minutes after we were lodged in our hotel room, the phone rang. It was CG, calling in long distance from Christ Church to give us a warm welcome and see if we managed to settle in fine. I thought that was mighty sweet and thoughtful of her. Afterwards, I made a call myself to another blogging friend, the one who was right there in Auckland and who we were hoping to meet up with sometime during the week, Kiwipinay. I caught her at the office and made arrangements to meet that night. Foiled arrangements, so we agreed anew to meet up the following day.
Papa had to see a client that afternoon and within minutes of checking in, he has showered, dressed and made plans with their distributor. Well then, have a good day, my dear, bye and see you later.
I pivoted around the room... oh yes, alone again.
But not lonely, not this time.
I stashed our things into the cabinets, took a shower loaded up my backpack and was out in no time.
I didn't do that. I didn't go wandering off alone in strange places. Didn't do that in Beijing for fear of not finding my way back cause I didn't have enough Chinese in me to ask for directions. I didn't do it in California cause I didn't have to... I never had a moment to be alone. Not in Genting cause that was a short weekend tryst Papa and I meant to spend together and solitary wanderings were totally out of the question. Not in Bintan, where we went everywhere as a couple of pairs.
And I loved it.
I loved getting to know the city by myself, with its streets going uphill and down like a mini-San Fransisco. I loved walking along Albert Street, crossing onto Victoria and finding the bus terminal where I booked our tickets for our bus trip to Wellington the following weekend after Papa's conference. I loved knowing that Victoria went quite aways, heading on to the Victoria Park Market, where I would be spending one weekday afternoon lunching alone, and sitting on my table afterwards, reading a book, without a care for the hour of the day... so English-like. I loved staring up the Sky City tower, bending backwards from my waist and almost toppling over with my backpack on the lead. Most of all, I loved how I discovered Denny's, just across the tower, where we would be having breakfast everyday of the coming week that by the end of it, I was waving hellos with the service crew.
It would be Monday evening, at the welcome dinner, before I met up with the rest of the group... some whom I've known from previous encounters on previous conferences whenever I would manage to tag along, others whom I would be meeting and shaking hands with for the first time. For those 2 days, however, Papa and I had Auckland all to ourselves, thanks to some thwarted plans.
This isn't going to be a travelogue. I couldn't, much as I would want it to be. There were just so many things I saw that telling about them chronologically would put me at risk of failing in accuracy. But in the coming days, I would tell you about some of the sights, as my eyes saw them, of the flavors (which wouldn't give me much to go by... unconsummably-sized steaks, bland all over, perked up a little by good wine that came by the bottle, would pretty much wrap up most of it), and everything, oh everything, about how I felt.
I loved New Zealand at first sight, from what I've seen of it in Auckland. Where the weather was cold, the terrain harsh, the people were warm and unpretentious. Towns and cities mounted against hills, and mountains and lakes and green, green everywhere you looked, patched up here and there with tresses of colorful vines and the non-occasional wildflower. In the city, there would be shops and restaurants budding up seemingly right where you would expect to find them, along streets that would wind up right where you would expect them to go.
Like I told Le-Anne, the wife of Norman, Papa's colleague, whom I first met in China, I love Auckland... if only because it's not as complicated as LA nor as incomprehensible as Beijing.
It's a city I seem to understand.
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