Following the Kepler track I only had two days to pack my life up and run around Dunedin to get everything organized for my adventures ahead. Team Germany (Marvin and Winton) and I bought flights up to Auckland that left on Monday November 12th. So I got all packed up and boarded a plane with these crazy Germans! Arriving on a Monday night we expected the city to be dead but I hadn't seen a night as busy as that one in a couple weeks. The local university in Auckland just finished that day and it seemed like every student was downtown celebrating as a result. The bar right next to the hostel was definitely the busiest spot too but, it was a $20 cover to get in and with that we headed back to the hostel. It only took one scrumpy each until we decided to pay the 20 bucks and rage with the other uni kids.
The next morning we were all woken up by the cleaning ladies who were shocked to see that we were still in bed at 10am. We got up very quickly, ate some breakfast and realized that we didn't know anything to do around Auckland. We got some great help from the hostel people and decided to take a trip over to Whaiheke island which is a 40 minute fairy ride off the East coast of Auckland. Getting off the fairy we went to look at bike rental prices on the island (turns out its the same price as renting a car) and in that time missed the bus which runs every hour. So we hitch hiked across the island and a woman who listened to the absolute craziest/weirdest music picked us up (The band was called Die Antwoord) and she lectured us on the band the whole car ride.
We made it to a vineyard and all headed directly to the wine tasting room. Our server thought it was hilarious when we explained to her that the nicest wines we've ever had came from a box. The majority of the wines were amazing and there is a definite difference between them and a goon. After the tour we jumped back on the bus where Marvin and Winton thought it was hilarious to teach me some German and we caught the next fairy back to Auckland.
That night we met up with Andrew (another student studying at Otago the same time we were) and hit the town where absolutely nothing was going on. Marvin and I wandered around what felt like the entire city having sword fights with these cylindrical cardboard pieces the whole way.
I flew out on the Wednesday; leaving from Auckland going back to Toronto! No one knew that I was heading back to Canada at all so I was very excited to surprise everyone. I had a 12.5 hour flight out of Auckland that was an hour delayed because of an oil leak? I only had a 1.5 hour layover in Vancouver so this gave me 30 minutes to collect my bags, go through customs and make my flight heading to Toronto. It was actually quite funny having the whole airport stair at me as I ran like a mad man to catch my flight. Sure enough I was the last one to board my plane and I don't think that the other passengers were too happy waiting for me. Landing in Toronto was a great feeling, but I really didn't miss the cold! Only one of my two luggage bags was on our flight and the other one was on a flight an hour afterwards. It was mailed to my house the next day.
I headed to Brock the very next day to surprise everyone. Pretty much everyone freaked out thinking they were looking at a ghost and one person even cried! Its good to be back home with the family and fellow Badgers. I start work on Monday and have 19 days until a family trip to Jamaica and 51 days until I leave for a separate adventure through America, Shanghai and Australia. Life is good.
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