Great Eastern Journey, Fri, 01 Mar 2013 | written by Simon
Simon at a City, Sea in Australia & Oceania, New Zealand

Auckland is awesome! Within the first few hours here I was on a boat, on a hill, in a tunnel, among villas, and at an acrobatics-burlesque show. But all in order.

I arrived a bit late so instead of going to my couchsurfing host flat, I went to town. Anna had a gig tonight, and she invited me to it, so I started slowly heading in the right direction, planning to see some stuff on the way. I took a ferry to the other side of town – what fantastic views from the boat! The ride is short, only 10 mins, and its just like a bus here.

I landed on the other side, grabbed some takeaway and headed towards Mt Victoria to eat on the top. Did I mention views? Just amazing! And I met a guy there who was flying his glider – started chatting, he gave me some tips on where to go for cool stuff around the island, and once of the things he mentioned was old fortifications and tunnels on the next hill. Not only that, he actually gave me a lift there! I needed to check them out quickly to make it for the gig, but it was worth it. On the way back I was walking through a villa district with some million-dollar colonial houses. As far as suburbs go, I could live in this one, some really beautiful areas, parks, streets ending in the sea… seemed interesting enough.

Villas next to old fortifications? Nice area
Scottish patriots will be happy to see that the golf fields in NZ suck
Couldn’t take pictures during the show, so here’s some fire

And finally – the show. ‘Dark Tales’ was a variety with acrobatics, burlesque and dance, put together by an amateur circus group led by Anna, my host. And wow were they good! Rather than go for the usual ‘and now for something completely different’ format, they told a story of a girl dreaming fairytales, while the Sandman and the good Fairy Gothmother fought over her soul, and three princes were trying to rescue her. In the meantime, some really good acro, some really hot acts (the Sandman was by far the hottest person there) and after the show, some fire spinning. Loved every minute of it!

After the show we weren’t to Anna’s house, which is the definition of ‘ creative mess’. Anna is a performer, LARPer, even organizer, bellydancer and tons more, and you can see that in her flat, everything is everywhere! Looks amazing! Anyway, another several people were saying here tonight, some surfers, some friends, and Anna’s daughter and flatmates. Busy place, and I ended in a room with a very gothy guy straight out of high school. Chatting until late, sleep, tomorrow is a long day.