Sour Taste In My Craw

Well I made it home safely. Well not "home" exactly, but I'm the US. Auckland was a great two day trip. Strangely enough, my favorite thing in Auckland was the hotel. It wasn't anything special, but it was the first time in two months that I (a) slept in a bed that I actually fit on, (b) slept in a room without 1 - 5 roommates, and (c) enjoyed a real shower, not a trickling stream of variable temperature water. I had one night in Auckland and, instead of looking for night life, I curled up in bed with junk food and watched New Zealand TV. It was a great night.

My trip home was fairly uneventful. Sadly, I had forgot about our country's fantastic security measures and lost a rare souvenir in the process. I don't feel like retelling the story, I think it'll just get me fired up again. But this whole "no liquids in your carry-on" seems a little ridiculous. It reminded me of the different routines we get to go through over here, and made me miss New Zealand before I left.

So what else did I learn in Auckland? Oh yeah, even a sleepy country like New Zealand can get suspicious if you don't have the right answers for a customs officer. In this case the wrong answer is a single, young, male traveling to Auckland for just two days with no idea where he's going to stay for the night. They really didn't like that last part. I thought it was kind of fun to land in Auckland with no idea where I was going to go for the day, but the customs agent wanted to know something a little more specific than "Auckland" as my destination address. They eventually let me through, but it would have been a lot easier if I had just picked a hotel at random and gone with that.

I also passed my last test in Auckland, driving a rental car on the wrong side of the road. Things actually went pretty smoothly. The only hiccup was about 20 minutes into my inaugural trip. I was sitting at a light, trying to figure out where I was and where I was going, when I looked up and saw a police officer behind me. I didn't necessarily panic, but I forgot everything I was thinking about and concentrated 100% on not breaking any laws. I survived the ordeal but ended up completely lost and turned around. Sadly, it wasn't the last time I'd get completely lost driving around Auckland, but fortunately I really liked driving so I didn't mind.