Getting settled

This week I have started socializing with my roommates at the hostel and met a lot of friendly backpackers. I'm feeling a lot more comfortable at the hostel now, so I'm no longer in a hurry to find another place to stay.

Rangitoto Island
Sunday I went with three friends from the hostel to Rangitoto Island. The island was formed 600 years ago, when an underwater volcano erupted. It's strange to think of 600 years as a short time, but it is the most recent volcanic eruption in New Zealand history. Today it is a beautiful cone shaped island right in front of Auckland harbor.

Luke, Marcus, me and Marcel on the summit

It was a 50 minute walk to the top

On the way we saw huge fields of lava rock

You can see most of the 1,5 million people city from the summit

How I imagine a volcanic crater

How it actually looks

On our way down we dropped Marcus into a lava cave

This lava cave has a narrow entrance

Inside it opens up and we explored 20 meters of cave

We felt awesome climbing out of a hole in the ground

Signs led us to a massive lava cave, but we were
more impressed with the ones we had found ourselves

The road back was long and hot, but we made it in time for the ferry

A shoutout to you guys, thanks for a great day!

Living in the library
When I'm not out exploring Auckland I spend my time at the library. I have a lot of stuff to do, so I easily spend a couple of hours there every day.

Welcome to my other home

The cool atmosphere is great for getting work done

Kiwis
Today I visited the Auckland Museum and saw stuffed versions of the three species of Kiwi birds. They seem curious and cute with their long beaks and fluffy fur. I learned that their ancestors flew here from Australia and discovered that there were no predators here. Then they gave up on flying in favor of heavy fur and a lower metabolism. They are unique that's for sure. But would I want to name myself one of them?

Stuffed Kiwis

Landing on my feet

My first week in Auckland has been full of new impressions. To take it in at a steady pace I have been walking around a lot. The first days I walked in circles, but with my new AT hop, bus card, I can walk farther away and then take the bus home. Now, let me take you on a tour of Auckland as I see it with my curious, unknowing eyes.

The place I call home
Is the Attic Backpackers hostel. It's a not a great place to live, but it's cheap and free from commitment. It's what I need right now, but it's not a place I will stay long term.

Welcome inside

Let's go to my room

Top bunk is the way to go

My closet has immense storing space

The neighborhood

I live in central Auckland, so the street outside is always full of people. I made a small video to show you what they look like. The video is from Queen Street just 100 meters from my home.

The street closest to my home looks a little dull at first glance, but it is stuffed with hidden gems. While I walk on it every day, it continues to surprise me with more stores I had not noticed.

Elliott street is 210 meters long and must houses a hundred shops

I found this shopping mall behind one of the small shop entrances

Saturday I found this multilevel arcade

Parks of Auckland

When I get the chance I usually walk through parks instead of following sidewalks.

Albert Park is beautiful and near my home

Victoria Park is a good place to play cricket it seems

Auckland Domain is a large park just outside the inner city ring

A winter garden is found in the middle of Auckland Domain

The Victoria lily pads, named for the queen, are huge

The Parnell Rose Gardens fits the somewhat boring suburb

This sidewalk turns into a jungle path

Had I known that the jungle path would lead me to a wide open park, where a bee was lying in wait for me, I would have stayed away. The sting hurt like hell and my foot was swollen for three days. In that time I Googled bee sting twice to make sure my foot wouldn't fall off.

It's not all parks

While I prefer to walk in parks, most of my time walking is spent on sidewalks. In Denmark that would be a uniform experience, as completely regular sidewalks run next to our roads. Here it is somewhat more challenging as the city has clearly been planned for cars only. Walking or riding the bicycle is much more cumbersome and you will often need to take long detours compared to the direct path of the cars. As a result of that, my map is an indispensable ally, as I zig zag towards a destination.

I keep my map with me at all times

Long, curvy detour

Nowhere to cross the road for miles

From the top of Mt Eden you can see the city center just above the crater

I wonder where the kiwis go to the beach

Becoming more kiwi

My first attempt at becoming more kiwi was sadly unsuccessful. I ate a Kiwiana thinking it to be a magic kiwi fruit. It turned out to be only a horned melon, which had been aptly renamed for it's taste. It tastes like a combination of a kiwi and a banana.

Not a magic fruit

Feature: Auckland Art Gallery

I have promised you a chance to follow me on my journey here in New Zealand through weekly updates on this blog. But sometimes I become so enthusiastic about a subject that it just doesn't fit into the weekly format. The feature posts give me a chance to tell delve on such subjects without making it a necessary read for those who just want to follow my progress here.

Today, I'd like to tell you about the Auckland Art Gallery. It's located right next to my hostel in the beautiful Albert Park. Entrance is free, but you pay to view special exhibitions. Currently they are presenting the special exhibition "Light Show", which was previously exposed in the Hayward Gallery, London. You are not allowed to take photos inside the exhibition so only the first two images of this post are my own.

LEGO skyline

As you walk up to the museum, you start to notice that the white skyline behind the glass facade is not a silhouette picture printed on the glass. It is in fact real LEGO buildings of impressive stature. As a Dane I felt good that Danish LEGO bricks were used for art so far from home. Up close I was even more impressed. A favorite artist of mine, Olafur Eliasson, had designed the piece by simply giving the visitors the freedom to whatever they wanted with a massive amount of white LEGO bricks. The endless possibilities just happened to turn into a skyline, which up close had all the marvelous details that a creative mind can make. The piece was extremely popular visitors were constantly building new and ever more impressive projects.

LEGO Skyline from outside

Lots of families building their contribution

Light Show

The special exhibition starts off slow on the ground floor. The first piece is best described as a dangling, but static star made of curved light tubes. I liked how the lines suggested movement, but don't think the use of light was essential to the sculpture. In the room was also two minor works of different artists, but neither of them impressed. Walking onwards you are led past a luminous staircase suggesting heavenly ascent into a room with a massive installation. Three large columns made of an small, old, yellowish light tubes stood majestically in the middle of the large otherwise completely dark room. The warmth from the light tubes slowly fluctuated as the strength of the light slowly shifted. The three pillars had different frequencies, but all of them slow enough to suggest the slow breathing of a massive otherworldly being. The room is large enough for you to walk around the sculpture on all sides, but I was immediately drawn to the center. Standing there I could feel the pulsing heat and light from all three of the columns. When the moment arrived where all three were dark at the same time, I momentarily felt a chill from the absence of the being, which was shielding me in warm light.

The Auckland version of this sculpture has three identical columns

The Second floor

On the second floor the exhibition continued with an impressive opening piece. Cylinder II is much wider than the pillars on the floor below and it is made entirely of modern LED lights on thin iron bars. Two rings of bars surround the inner column and each bar hosts countless small LED lights. Software controls the thousands of lights with a combination of randomness and inspiration from nature. The show it produces is what makes the work special. It alternates between a wide range of expressions from organic shapes resembling burning fire to falling lights that could resemble meteor showers. When it goes dark it builds expectation and when it sparkles light everywhere it makes you feel light headed with relief. The ability of the software to control the lights and create such emotions is what made it my favorite piece of the exhibition.

Cylinder II resembles a centralized being at this moment

The next rooms had some mediocre pieces, but I was delighted when I found the contribution of Olafur Eliasson, "A Timeless Garden". It utilizes strobe light to seemingly freeze time in a room filled with small fountains. To experience it properly you have to view each fountain individually and let your eyes capture the pictures of water frozen in mid-air often in spectacular shapes. The illusion of water frozen in time is so strong that the scene becomes pristine and unlike any garden fountain.

These are a few of the fountains in "a timeless garden"

Before leaving I stood in line to watch a piece by James Turell only to discover that I had seen it before. It is in one of the "nine rooms" of Aros, the contemporary art gallery of my home town and it still failed to impress me. The guide tried to help us visitors perceive the depth of the red lighted room. It tricks your eyes by constructing a wall using only light. In fact people do sometimes see the installation and believe it to be a completely flat painting. You can put your hand in there to dispel that illusion, but you can't touch the second "wall", so most people just assume it is there.

Leo Villareal with people wondering what they are looking at

Much more to see

The rest of the museum offers much more art for the interested. After a short break I continued to see some drawings by Goya and a permanent contemporary art exhibition. But I was already filled up with impressions, so I didn't get as much from those. Aside from that there are exhibitions on classic sculptures, native art and international 20th century art.

I'm in Auckland!

I have spent the past two days in airplanes and now I'm finally here! We landed this morning before sunrise. There were few clouds in the sky, the air was moist and full of the smells of summer. In the distance we could see water and islands and when we lowered our eyes we found the airport shuttle bus. The scene was impossible to take in before we were ushered into the bus, but the feeling lingered all the way through the airport. We had arrived in Auckland!

Leaving home

Two days earlier I said goodbye to my family in Aarhus. It was hugs and best wishes one final time and that feeling of finality made me feel slightly anxious. I was already nervous about the trip and finding my way through the airports to catch my connecting flights. It added up to a pretty good level of stress. The stress would definitely have been exacerbated by the train problems I would have faced if I had not taken precautionary measures. Following the advice of my mother I got myself a seat ticket and I also took an early departure from Aarhus. Both came in handy as two of the train wagons didn't show up in Aarhus, but gave us half an hour of delay in Frederecia. Instead of reading as I had planned, I ended up listening in on the conversations of the other passengers and helping a Spanish girl understand the announced messages.

Flying with the Emirates

In Kastrup I felt more at ease as I was welcomed by the Emirates staff at the check in counter. They look really cool in their uniforms which mix classic business and their Arabic heritage. Sure enough they took very well care of us passengers on the flight as we received great in flight entertainment from touch screens at every seat and a three course dinner. We arrived in the impressive Dubai airport at nighttime. By following signs and hand signals of the many airport staff members I found my way to the next gate. There I had the funny experience that I think many tourists have had on their first visit to Dubai. Walking in to the spacious toilet you see marble sinks, shiny clean floors and all the stylish things that make you think of it as a very modern place. Then you find the hole in the ground that makes it out for a toilet. I was seriously in doubt about how to go about my business and even considered waiting until I was on the plane, but eventually decided to get the complete experience of the Dubai airport.

Flying with the Aussies

The next flight was with Qantas Airways. An Australian airline through and through. The captain welcomed us aboard with a thick accent and warmly told of lots of stuff that I don't remember. After takeoff we closed all the windows and the light was turned off so we could sleep. Only I wasn't tired at all and I didn't even think it would be a good time to sleep considering it would be morning in New Zealand at this time. So I watched some movies instead and I was served a beef brisket by the staff. A very strange, fast food like, dish that I accidentally stained my trousers with. But it was a very long flight I was on, so I eventually succumbed to sleep. When I woke up I was served a large dinner, that I couldn't reconcile with my inner food clock. I was expecting breakfast at this time, because I had dinner only 5 hours earlier.

Flying with the Kiwis

In Melbourne airport I met Lisa, a Norwegian girl who was also headed for Auckland. We had a nice chat and decided to spend our first hours in Auckland together. She taught me that the New Zealand accent changes the sound of the letter "e" to "i" in some words. Aboard the plane the captain welcomed us aboard the "jetstar" flight, which changed to "jitstar" in his mouth. I laughed to myself as he later gave a message to the "flight deck".

Aboard this plane there was no entertainment and I tried hard to sleep, as it was now night in New Zealand, but afternoon in Denmark. I'm pretty good at sleeping when I want to, so I managed to sleep almost the entire flight, despite the crying of a few babies.

Finally here

So now we have finally landed in Auckland, cleared security and found a bus to the city center. The plan is to get rid of our suitcases at our hostels and then go see Auckland. I'm excited about being here, exhausted from the jet lag and still somewhat anxious. But now I'm anxious because my future is more uncertain than ever before. I'll tell you what it brings in my next post.