Okay, now I can safely say goodbye to Sydney. After the longest and most stressful weekend of my life, I am now in the ground in Auckland, enjoying exploring the city and eating at a wide range of restaurants.
On Tuesday, I took my final trips on Sydney’s public transportation and arrived at the airport with a few hours to spare. During my time, I grabbed dinner and did some souvenir shopping for a few gifts that I couldn’t find to that point. I then boarded and had a very great flight to Auckland. This flight mirrored my last flight to New Zealand 8 years prior in many ways, from the airline to the meal, and even my decision to watch Moana 2 after having watched the original back in 2017. By the time I arrived at the accommodation, it was 3 am and I was ready for bed.
Seeing an Air New Zealand plane made me so exceptionally happy and excited for this part of my semester to begin
Due to my flight, my supervisor encouraged me to take a half day and come in during the afternoon. I made my way to my internship and learned more about my main project. I am working with a motel chain to help them move their archive of blog posts from their old website to a new one that will go live in May. As a result, I have begun to learn a great deal about what terminology aids in the search engine optimization process and learned a new CMS system that the website is built around. Following work, Sienna and I grabbed dinner down by the pier before calling it a night.
Kia Ora, a New Zealand greeting wishing good health, a very welcoming message from the first night in the country
Nobody was in the office on Thursday which meant that I worked from the accommodation. During my lunch break, I went to the store to buy groceries. After my day ended, I joined most of the other GAV students for dinner a rooftop bar. We had a great time all talking and hanging out even though the representative from GAV couldn’t make it.
The sunset we had during dinner
Friday I was back in-person and finally met Renee, my supervisor, for the first time in person. She, Sophie (another intern I’m working with), and I all went out for lunch which was a great way to get to know my fellow teammates better. Afterwards, Dom, Ryan, and I went to the make-up catch-up dinner and spent some time downtown before ultimately calling it a night.
Saturday was a very exciting day for me as one of my friends from home was arriving to see Auckland. We spent most of the day exploring around the city. We sightsaw down at the pier, walked to the Skytower, and found some food along the way. After regrouping for a bit, we went back down by the water for dinner and found a mini golf bar where we enjoyed some drinks and played 9 holes.
A Simpsons-themed hole from the mini golf bar
Sunday we grabbed breakfast and then did some shopping to prepare to head to the beach. Mission Bay is no Bondi Beach, but it is very beautiful and relaxing in its own way. Instead of ocean views, smaller islands off the coast were visible and there was a very welcoming feeling to the beach that not all of the Sydney beaches had. After the beach we grabbed Japanese food for dinner, watched a movie, and then I got ready for the second week of my internship.
Mission Bay
So far, I have really enjoyed Auckland. My first impression wasn’t amazing due to poor weather on Wednesday but it has been 70 degrees and sunny since. Beyond the weather, every single person that I have interacted with has been incredibly nice. From my Uber driver to cashiers, wait staff, coworkers, and even strangers that could tell that I was lost, every single person I have spoken to has been incredibly willing to talk with and help me. I remembered New Zealand being hospitable the last time that I was here but the past few days have still surprised me. Auckland as a city has also grown on me more as I have continued to explore although I feel that I have very solid bearings at this point. I really look forward to journeying beyond Auckland in the coming weekends, although they feel like a far more finite number than they ever did in Sydney.
The Auckland skyline as we were walking back from dinner tonight