We traveled for one year before arriving in Auckland, and over that year we moved on average every 3-4 days. Just saying that sounds exhausting. Ever get home from a vacation and say to yourself I need another vacation because you were on the move so frequently? Doing just that for a year makes you miss and appreciate some of the aspects we all label as mundane in our daily lives. Consider this too, in addition to packing up and moving every few days you must also research, learn, and find things in your new location. Things like the public transportation system, grocery stores, attractions to see, currency exchange rates, local customs, and of course coffee shops. Fortunately, with the internet much of this is quite simple and quick to do, however on a continual basis over a year these tasks eventually become dreadful to even think about. I really admire the people that traveled long term before the internet and cell phones, they are a tough breed. Needless to say, after one year on the road we were both very ready for a long break in one place. Our break from travel was also so Lauren could find a job in a kitchen to see if she enjoyed cooking professionally as much as she does at home.

Bryan came down with a cold shortly after we arrived. Luckily, we were finally in a place where he could just chill and get over his cold quickly rather than just constantly moving around!

Originally, we expected to spend this time in Australia because we had heard from many other travelers it was easy to get work visas and find decent paying jobs there. This could be true for those under 30 traveling direct to Australia from a 1st world country but spend a little time in South East Asia and suddenly they want a chest x-ray for tuberculosis. When Lauren applied online for her work visa in New Zealand, they waived the $450 fee and approved her in less than 48 hours! In both countries I had to find the job first before applying for a work visa which sounded like it could take forever.

It’s amazing how quickly we reverted to living a normal life even in a city and country that was strange to us. We quickly grew to know our surroundings and absolutely loved the Mt Eden area that we had arbitrarily picked for our home. It’s funny to me when I look back on our experience to date, the time spent living and working in Auckland went by the fastest. I think this is because we so easily get wrapped up in our typical schedules that the days march by and blend together. Our time traveling actually seemed to go by slowly which has always surprised me. I think it is because we had the free time to reflect on experiences and really soak in the memories. This could also be a lot of mumbo jumbo you can decide for yourself.

It’s a hard task to sum up what it was like working and living in another country for seven months. We are not city people, but we truly enjoyed living in Auckland because of the smaller size of the city. We could walk from our apartment to the center of the CBD in about 35 minutes or take a bus or train to get there in about 10 minutes. It never felt like a chore to get in and out of the city for some fun. Auckland is the biggest city in New Zealand, but from day one the size of it reminded me of Ballston, Arlington back home. We never felt boxed in by the city or peopled out as we walked around. I believe Goldilocks would have picked Auckland, it’s just right.

Instead of trying to string together some type of coherent storyline of our experience I think sharing brief short stories of our time will be much more interesting. To that end, here are our Auckland Experiences:

Finding Jobs

Of course, when working overseas you have to deal with the headache of work visas. Here is a lesson to the wise. If you plan to work abroad do it before you turn 30! Many countries around the world have reciprocal agreements to let young people work for a year on what is called a working holiday visa which essentially make you a resident for a year. They are cheap, sometimes free, and typically easy to apply for and almost a certainty to get. Once you have celebrated your dirty thirty, say goodbye to the easy visas—unless you’re a Canadian; they somehow got the bar set at 35, jealous! For the guys getting their first greys out there like me the work visa process is much more expensive, time consuming, and frustrating. In New Zealand, and like many other countries, you must find the job first and then apply for the visa. Which essentially means you must be in the country before your job search can start in earnest.

Lauren got a job in 3 days! Oh, to be young again. Our first day in Auckland we visited a vegan café nearby our Airbnb for lunch, loved the food, and saw on their Facebook page they were hiring. Lauren made her CV (resume) and emailed it to them that night. The next morning, they had replied and asked if she could come in for an interview. No surprise that they loved her and thought she would be a perfect fit and asked her to come in that week to spend a day in the kitchen as a trial run. She nailed it and had a job when she walked out.
- Lauren: I love how Bryan thinks I nailed the interview, but I remember being beyond nervous before, during, and even after my interview. I was after all going for a position in a totally new field of work. My CV was a conglomeration of skills from my civil engineering, travel, and personal experiences that I thought would contribute to my learning to be a chef. The head chef and owner interviewed me, and I think having specific skills in vegan cuisine helped enormously, and maybe the fact that I’m obsessed with cooking. I ended up with a kitchen assistant position on an “as-needed” basis, as I was only on a working holiday visa. I’m beyond glad they took a chance on me. I can confidently say be the end of my time working in Auckland I had out-performed the job description of my position.

I also started off with optimism as I had a prospect lined up about a week before we left Indonesia who was willing to sponsor a visa application. As asked, I gave him a call when I got to Auckland and we set up a meeting for that week. This was for a handyman position with a home remodeling company which I thought would be fun to do for a short while and maybe pick up some skills. We met at a coffee shop in a mall about 25 minutes outside of Auckland CBD. The guy, who owns the company, shows up in overalls and starts talking immediately. What transpired ended up being one of the strangest, interesting, and most uncomfortable conversations of my life. I had no clue from second to second where the conversation was going next. I got to contribute maybe four sentences in our hour-long conversation. Here are some of the more interesting conversation topics:

He hates New Zealand and wants to return to Australia, but can’t because he was kicked out for being a Hells Angel
He is extremely racist….hates the local Maori for being lazy and loves Chinese because they work hard for cheap
He is incredibly opinionated and arrogant.
He did this weird bulgy eye stare at you with a short emphatic pause to see if you were impressed with the last tid bit of bull shit he spouted out.
He tried to give me about a dozen life lessons about how to not work hard which I silently thought was hilarious after his racist comments earlier.

Needless to say after meeting with that nut job I was back to square one. The next two weeks felt like six because I was in agony and worry as I kept getting rejected or ignored by recruiters. They didn’t even want to talk to me unless I already had a work visa. To no avail, I tried to explain to them that is not how their visa process works. I really have a dislike and distrust for all recruiters, except Kevin Kim of course. All the while Lauren would come home riveted from loving her day cooking in the kitchen. I was so worried that if I could not find a job, I would ruin her time and make us leave early. Or worse she wouldn’t leave with me! Thankfully I did not need to find out when an interview came from a very improbable lead.

I called on a job posting that was 8 months old for a CAD manager position and spoke with a guy in Australia. He said they were looking for a more permanent person for the role but would call the main office in Auckland to see if they had any need for CAD drafters or engineers. I was biking back with our groceries when my phone rang, and I answered with a ragged breath. I went into the interview not knowing what exactly to expect since this was not in response to a job listing that I could prepare for, but I assumed it was for a CAD type role since I had told them it was nothing permanent. I went into the interview a little nervous since there was a lot riding on me getting the position. I had no other leads and I knew the work visa process could take anywhere from 4-12 weeks which would just reduce the total amount of time I had to work and make some money. By the time the interview was over I had a pretty good idea that I had landed myself a job, however I had no idea what the role was exactly. Was I to be a CAD draftsperson or a civil engineer? It ended up being a split role called a Senior Civil Designer. All I cared is that I got the job I needed to start my visa application to hopefully get to work within the next 2 months (average processing time)!

I felt such a relief after getting the job offer and could start the visa process to stay in the country. I debated spending $1,000 for professional help to make sure everything went smoothly but after reading everything thoroughly I did it all myself. Now the waiting game…4-12 weeks hoping that I would have a reasonable amount of time to work before we planned to start traveling again. I was going to feel bad if I only ended up working for a few months. After about a week and a half I made a call to check on my application and learned nobody had even looked at it yet. I started a conversation with the lady and after ten minutes of chit chat she offered to email her boss to bring attention to my application to hopefully expedite it. We have learned in NZ that nothing happens unless you call and talk to someone to help push things along. I talked to the right lady on the right day in the right mood because my visa got approved just a few days later! Six weeks after landing I started working. In hindsight it all happened rather quickly, and I sound like a drama queen, but it was nerve wracking going into it not knowing how things would pan out.

Sunset views from walking home from work. It was really nice to be able to walk each day to and from work

One of Bryan’s lunches when I didn’t have anything for him to take in…Savoury Pies from Tart!

Strange Encounters

Only a few days after getting to Auckland we were walking to the CBD from our Airbnb to do some clothes shopping for Lauren’s new job and interview clothes for me. On our way we passed by a large cemetery on the edge of the CBD where once before we had seen a homeless woman living on a grave plot. On this frightful day we heard some shouting emanating from the cemetery on our approach. I wish I could forget the sight of the obese homeless woman, naked from the waist down, chasing a fully dressed man out of her cemetery. We have no clue what the catalyst for this scene of events was. Your guess is as good as ours.

I think it may have been the same week as the naked homeless lady that this next bizarre encounter happened. We were walking down K road, not far from the cemetery, and as we neared a man who looked a bit peculiar, he screamed at us as he passed. I believe he directed his fit more at Lauren and it was not until a few seconds later that I realized what he had said, “BAD CHILD!” He even followed it with a pathetic, fleeting apology. How unnerving? And how did he know? Were our parents behind this as a scare tactic to chase us home? I shrugged it off and rationalized it that he must have Tourette’s syndrome. His scream scared Lauren enough to get a scream out of her in return which only goaded me to surprise her the next night bringing home pizza in the dark with another “BAD CHILD!” scream.
This one may not be so strange here, but back home it definitely is unusual. Many people in Auckland have dogs, and the majority of the dogs we saw were off leash. In fact, the walk up to the summit of Mt Eden is a dedicated off-leash area of Auckland. Those afraid of dogs can calm down—every single dog we saw ignored us completely. They would just casually walk on by not even looking once in our direction. Not a single sniff. Even when I tried to sweet talk a few, I would get a brief glance as if to say, “I’m on a walk here; I have no time for this petting nonsense!” Some would walk alongside their humans and others would walk ahead, but not once did I see any rambunctious behavior! Anyways, they were all adorable, and I desperately wanted to pet every single one.

Fun Around Town

In our first few weeks in Auckland we started looking for fun stuff to do in this hip city and Lauren found an indoor mini golf with a twist called Holey Moley. Every hole had a different theme, many from movies and childhood games. The themes I can remember were; the Flintstones, Operation, ET, Tetris, the Shire, Game of Thrones, Evil Knievel, and Mouse Trap. One of our favorites was a pinball machine where you play with your ball and when you lose it drops onto a pool table and each pocket drops the ball in a different location from the hole below.

We got really into the beer scene in Auckland. Early on we found a couple of bars with about a dozen taps and lots of sour beers! I think it was about two months into living in Auckland when we struck gold. Lauren surprised me with a variety six pack of sour beers she got from a new place that opened up just around the corner from our place. They told her about their bar just down the street called the Beer Jerk Bunker which soon became a favorite of ours when we wanted to treat ourselves to an exotic beer. We also finally visited the Garage Project bar we had walked past several times on the way to stock up on coffee at Atomic. I bought a 2L growler the second time we went to Garage Project and made it my weekly visit every Saturday after working on Pumpkin to fill the growler. They had a dozen taps that would change weekly and it was rare to taste a beer there I didn’t like. That’s the other thing they would let you taste whatever you wanted they even encouraged it. This was their only other location in NZ other than their brewery in Wellington which we plan to visit!

Beer Jerk—they loved Stone beer, so I naturally loved this place

The only picture we ever got from Garage Project

Just above the Beer Jerk Bunker was a barcade with mostly pinball machines called Save Ferris. We enjoyed a few nights having a beer and playing some classic video games there. We also found an arcade in downtown Auckland with an insane air hockey game. It was Pac Man themed and unexpectedly in the middle of the game dropped dozens of small pucks. The last barcade we went to was a newly opened themed bar fromt he same developers as Holey Moley. It was a circus themed barcade with bowling and bumper cars!!! Unfortunately when we went, the bumper cars were not working and the bowling was WAY overpriced. We each bought an expensive drink and played a few games, but I wouldn’t go back.

The ancient computer keeping our bowling scores

Focus is necessary to be a pro at the shooting game

In the New Market neighborhood, we found a bowling alley that looked like it had seen better days. We were longing for our classic Bowl Americas back home, which at least took care of the bowling lanes! These lanes were not slick and even lopsided in some places. The computer screens that kept score were definitely from the 80’s and the balls looked like a collection of old balls thrown away from the US bowling alleys. Lauren had an easier time brushing off these imperfections more than I could, but we laughed it off and had fun bowling a few games anyways.

Lauren likes to do this thing where she actually reads signs and posters while she walks around the city. I am usually in my own little world while I walk. Well her habit proved useful when she read a sign for a night market a couple blocks away from us in Mt Eden. After a bit of a letdown from a lackluster night market downtown a few days prior we didn’t expect much in the city outskirts of Mt Eden. As we walked up to the market which was strangely like a grand opening of a furniture store, we both read a sign that said free wine and beer and looked at each other in disbelief. Where is the catch? The only catch we found was that they would run out so you had to drink up quick to get down more than a few. We had some wine a beer as we pretended to seriously peruse the furniture. They even had a couple food trucks in their parking garage and a chocolate stand that we fell in love with and robbed us of $50. It was okay since they at least gave us 4 bars of chocolate for it.

A couple nights after the Mt Eden night market was the Tūrama Festival of Lights in a park downtown. On one end of the park they had a couple dozen art exhibits set up by students using a variety of light techniques. Many of them were interactive and our favorite was the projection of flowers on the canopy of a tree which looked like a bouquet. The flowers would wax and wane depending on how many people were gathered in front looking at the display as each person represented a flower. I was a big purple one. On the other side of the park were food stands where we got dinner and listened to a band playing on a large gazebo, The Saxabros. This park was right next to the University of Auckland campus which I assume has a large arts department.

We went to see the Beatles philharmonic orchestra at the Aotea Theater. Duh it was cool it was the Beatles and a philharmonic orchestra. They played every single Beatles song that had orchestra music. The singers were fantastic and the vibe was more high energy than I expected. By the end of the night everyone was standing up, swaying to the music, and singing along to the Beatles songs.

We went to a couple of comedy shows, one improv and one standup. We have gotten into improv after the hilarious improv show Olaide took us to in NYC to see his girlfriend Rachel perform in. The comedy show here was not nearly as funny, but it got some good laughs out of us and awkward moments when we didn’t understand the political humor. The standup comedy show was something I found and took Lauren to because it was all women. The proceeds from the show went to support a local women’s shelter, so everyone performed because they wanted to, which I felt gave more meaning to the show. They were all funny and some were hilarious! We sat in the front row, and I was so nervous that I would be singled out and picked on as one of two men in the front of the audience. One of the ladies must have been a local celebrity because I saw her on TV a couple of times after that.

We loved living within walking distance to the top of Mount Eden because on nice evenings we could take a walk up to the top for a great sunset view. Mount Eden is the tallest volcanic dome around the city and has great panoramic views. One of my favorite things about the Auckland region is how the landscape is dotted by volcanic domes. There are over 50 in the region and you can count at least 10 from the top of Mt Eden. The walk is also a bit of an escape from the concrete jungle as we would listen to Tui birds serenade us on our way to the top. There was also a very fun zipline in the park at the base! The first few months in Auckland, Lauren would run to the top and back for a challenging run.

A portion of the volcano crater of Mt Eden

All the while that we lived in Auckland; we were a two-minute walk to a music venue that reminded us of the state theater. I told Lauren I wanted to go to at least one concert there and after picking about four potential options we ended up going to see The Jam which is an English revival/punk rock band popular in the 70’s and early 80’s. I recognized their most well known song “A Town Called Malice,” and the tickets were pretty cheap, so we figured why not. We had seen young kids lined up down the block at times waiting to get into this venue as we walked by on weekend nights. That is not the crowd that was there on this night. We were a good twenty years younger than the next youngest person there, even the bouncer checking our tickets told us we were the youngest people she’d seen all night. We were surrounded by people in their 50’s and 60’s ready to rock out to their favorite childhood band. We had a good time and recognized about four songs they played. Lauren got hit on by about three different guys while I was standing right next to her. One guy was so drunk in front of us he could hardly stand. Kiwis definitely like to party hard.

They seemed to have at least two large festivals a month in Auckland which kept us busy and happy. I would say the biggest one we went to was an Indian festival called Diwali. There were all kinds of Indian food stands that lined the streets packed with people. They also had a few stages set up, one with a DJ playing music with a dance area and another stage with groups dancing. We enjoyed watching the groups dance, some looked professional and well-rehearsed and others were groups of friends having their moment on stage to show off their favorite cultural dance. Our favorites were younger groups that combined the traditional dances with a modern hip hop twist.

We saw the American Idiot show (an album from the band Green Day for those who are unfamiliar). This album was apparently meant for the stage and painted a story of 3 friends and the troubles they encountered through young adulthood in the early 2000’s. It was a crass show that at first made us feel a bit uncomfortable, but the music was excellent and the acting was great.

Clip ‘N Climb was an unusual rock climbing gym Bryan and I went to. We met up with a coworker and his group of friends. All of the courses had automatic belaying systems, so you literally just clipped your harness to them and began climbing. Beyond the usual rock climbing walls we’re used to there were a lot of different types of climbing walls like one with moving pegs, tetris blocks, one where you climbed a chimney shaped course, and even a timed wall. It was a fun night and a different climbing adventure than we had ever experienced before.

At the end of the week I started work was the annual Beca Ball, the company’s largest celebration of the year. They were kind to offer Lauren and I the option to attend so close to the date and it gave us a chance to dress up and have a good time for a cheap price so we accepted. When we stepped off the elevator we were overwhelmed with how many people where there and how large the event was after working so many years at a small family owned company. There must have been about three hundred people at this event which started out like many others, a cocktail hour, buffet dinner while the big shots talk about how great they did for the year. Oh but I forgot to mention at this event it was also optional to dress up in costume and the theme was superheroes and villains. From the costume contest on the night was quite a bit of fun as the alcohol kicked in and I began to not worry about not knowing hardly anybody and what everybody’s name was. Shortly after dinner a band came out and the dance floor started bumping. We stayed and danced until almost midnight, and there were no signs of the party stopping when we left.

This may seem mundane, but Lauren ran/walked a lot on her days off and enjoyed seeing all the adorable houses around Auckland as well as the springtime flowers and trees in bloom. There aren’t many mansions in Auckland, mainly medium-sized homes with Victorian-era flourishes on the roof-lines and plenty of front porches. The gardens found on front yards, beside sidewalks, and even in the middle of medians were all filled to the brim with flowers we had never seen before, mainly of the tropical variety. Lauren also enjoyed how the honeysuckles (her favorite scent) seemed to bloom for months in New Zealand rather than a few measly weeks back home.

Walking around the pockets of neighborhoods in Auckland. New Market, Grey Lynn, Ponsonby, Mt Eden, Kingsland, North Shore, and Parnell are a few of the neighborhoods within Auckland we visited either for errands or for fun. I loved perusing the main streets of each of these neighborhoods, with their local cafes and shops. Each one had a little bit of a different vibe about them, and if you’re going to visit Auckland at all, I would highly suggest making your way to one of these neighborhoods for a true taste of Auckland—which is more than just its downtown area.

Frank's Hot Sauce and the America Store!

Visits from Family and Friends

Keith Mann came to visit! We dragged him out immediately after his flight on a bar crawl we had been wanting to do for a while. Its called the Auckland Beer Mile and it’s longer than a mile. We also rented Lime scooters for the first time to ride the mile instead of walk it to make the trips between bars quicker. I thought the Lime scooter would make me feel old and uncoordinated, but it was actually extremely easy and fun. We zipped from bar to bar and caught up over beers and food. We didn’t quite finish the bar crawl, but we gave it an honest effort. There are seven breweries and bars and we made it through five of them. We ended the night at the beer jerk bunker where we had a bit of a surprise. The three of us ordered our beers and Keith and I talked as Lauren slipped to the toilet. It is right about the time I began to worry she had been in there a long time when she called and told me she had run home, as she does when she gets close to black out drunk. We think it is a security function in her subconscious to get home before a potential shutdown. Keith and I laughed at how stealthy she pulled it off, and I finished her beer too before we left. We walked back and found Lauren’s lime scooter parked out front. She hadn’t run home, she had scooted home!

Keith feeling chilly after being in hottt Southeast Asia

Showing off our Koh Tao Pub Crawl shirts

Lauren’s aunt visited us in October. We had a blast showing her around Auckland. She had a two week visit around New Zealand, so we got to see her for a few days at the beginning of her trip as well as a day at the end. We went to Mt Eden for sunset and then downtown to an Italian Place near the waterfront of Auckland for dinner. The next day we hopped on a ferry to Waiheke Island and enjoyed some wine!! After taking the hop-on hop-off bus all the way to the end, we walked along Onetangi Beach and made our way to a Spanish Tapas restaurant Bryan and I had been eager to try. Casita Miro on Waiheke has okay wines, but the food and ambiance was above par! The walkway up to the winery has a Gaudi-esque wall that sets the Barcelona mood. Once inside, you can’t help but look around frantically trying to take in all the colors and cute accents of the interior. After lunch and a wine tasting we headed down the hill to Obsidian Winery. This place was not for looks, as it was basically an outdoor seating area where you could taste their wines. We waited around the tasting room for 10 minutes until I finally went into what looked like a garage and yelled out, “Hello?” A woman appeared, surprised we were there (I guess Monday afternoons tend to be slow). She then poured us the most wonderful tasting wines we had on Waiheke—bold red wines that Bryan and I love, with pepper and spice and oakiness to boot. We also were greeted by a few of the winery dogs, one of which loved to play fetch…with rocks. I don’t know how he hadn’t cracked a tooth yet. The final winery we visited that day was Mudbrick—a classic Waiheke Island winery with an ideal setting. Nestled on a hill, one can see the Auckland skyline in the distance and on every other side there are other vineyards and neighborhoods dotting the many hills of Waiheke. We rode the very last bus to Mudbrick, had a glass of wine and their caulflower steak which melted in your mouth. We then walked back to the ferry terminal (roughly 30 minute walk) in the dark, down the windy roads. The following day we walked around the Ponsonby neighborhood of Auckland. It’s an area with many cute shops and restaurants. We also went to Garage Project to show off our favorite brewery in the area :) The next day, Her aunt went to Rotorua, and we met up again for an evening when she came back to catch her flight the next day to Christchurch. That evening we went to Gorilla Kitchen, the cafe I worked at, and all ordered various burgers and starters and Lauren showed her aunt the kitchen. We then made our way to Save Ferris, where we all had a blast enjoying some beer and pinball. We all agreed there was one machine in particular that was the best because it would “save ball” many times when we thought our turns had ended. Although our favorite game of the night was the foosball-like hockey game. I think Lauren and her aunt got their competitive drives going on that one! At the end of her trip, Lauren’s aunt stayed with us for 2 more nights. The first night was low key—we ordered pizza, veganized the Koester family butterhorns recipe, and went through Lauren’s aunt’s photos of her trip on the South Island. We got our first glimpse of the cheeky kea bird, which when she and other tourists initially came across one, thought was a kiwi haha. The next day, we walked all around downtown Auckland and looked around various souvenir and other shops. Lauren and her aunt then split off and went to an all vegan high tea at Hector’s restaurant. The tables were adorned with beautiful porcelain china and they were given a selection of teas and coffees, of which they could each have two. Once they had their tea and decaf flat white with vanilla syrup (Aunt wanted to get one more flat white before leaving New Zealand!), the food came out. A three-tiered platter of various snacks, bites, sandwiches, and desserts as well as scones and butter delighted us as we sipped our drinks and chatted away. Lauren said she couldn’t believe how delicious everything was, and that it was vegan! Anyways, the hours flew by and with full tummies they made their way to the Sky Tower in Auckland. I met up with them, and we rode to the top of the tower with a 360 degree view of Auckland. We had fun pointing out various landmarks and walking over the clear floors. We even got an opportunity to watch someone bungee jump off the outside of the tower! We’re always so thankful to have family visit; it brought a little bit of home to our temporary “home” in Auckland.