Greetings from Auckland, New Zealand! When I was entering the country and going through immigration and customs, the agent looked at my card and said, "A television editor, huh? Have you done anything I might have seen?" I told him I had just finished up working on a season of BL. He looked at me deadpan and said, "Denny Crane." Then he laughed and told me how much he loved the show and then let me go without asking a single question about drugs or smuggling money. I made a mental note to use this trick again in the future.

It's winter here, but the weather hasn't been too bad except for today. (Rainy and cold). I was supposed to rent a car and head about 40 minutes from town to go mountain bike riding, but I was overwhelmed enough with the idea of driving on the wrong side of the road in the city without adding wet rainy roads to the equation. And since no one was meeting me for a ride anyway, I thought I would bypass a wet, muddy ride in an unfamiliar area by myself. I've already come to the conclusion that 4 days in Auckland is not enough for this country an I need to return soon, preferably at Christmastime, to do 2-3 weeks just in New Zealand alone. I need to see the rest of the country and it just can't be done right now with my travel schedule (almost over) and my budget (almost gone).

My first full day here was decent. It was not bad if the wind wasn't up, but when it was, it was COLD. I walked to the city center (there's no train system in the city) and caught a ferry across the bay to Devenport. It's a nice little harbor town which reminds me, somewhat, of Sausalito - without the overpriced stores. The ferry map had a suggested walk through the city which I did. It took a few hours and was nice. It took me along the waterfront, up over North Head (an old military instillation from WWII), back down the beach again, then through the town and up Mt Victoria which was quite a climb. In fact, I literally CLIMBED up this steep hill because the map I had suggested it. I'm lucky I didn't kill myself. When I got to the top, it was incredibly windy and cold but there was a nice view. The way down the mountain was a nice road - would have been nice to know about the road on the way up! Here's the view!

After I got done with my hike, I walked down the main street and found a place to get a burger and some chips (french fries). You would all die if you saw how much chips they give you with an order, especially if you're from Los Angeles like me where everyone turns up their nose at things like french fries because of their "strict no-carb diet." There were enough chips to feed a family of four! And yes, as you can see in the photo below, I paid $.50 for my ketchup, which isn't really ketchup at all. They call is tomato sauce. There seems to be some sort of ketchup shortage in both Australia and New Zealand as I often saw places where you had to purchase it, or you were limited to only 1 or 2 ketchup packets. This is not nearly enough to feed my ketchup habit.

While I was eating, I checked my cell phone to see I had gotten a text message from my friend, Sylvia, who now lives in Auckland. She used to work with me on BL, but was deported back to NZ. As it turns out, she lives in Takapuna, the next town over from Devenport where I was at. Before I knew it, she'd driven over and picked me up and we went over to the beach there. Did a little sightseeing and then took the ferry back across the bay and checked out Queen Street, the main street, wandering in and out of shops until I walked back home. This is the beach in Takapuna:

The next day I went on a dolphin and whale watching tour. It was 5 hour tour of the bay and pretty expensive. I saw tons of dolphins, but barely saw any whales. You never know where they're going to come up and they don't breach like other whales. They're easy to miss if you're not looking in the right place, which I never seemed to be. Saw lots of whale spouts, but not too many whales. Not sure if the cruise was worth the $140 but it was nice to see the dolphins.

After the cruise, Sylvia met me in town and we went up to the Auckland Tower. I didn't really care to go to another one, but Sylvia had actually never been (she's only been here a few months). It was a nice view but a little too overcast and rainy to appreciate it. For extra money, I could have bungee jumped off the tower, but I was so very not into it. However, we did sit near the window for awhile watching people jump.

After the tower, we went and found a bar with a super huge screen and watched my very first rugby game. It was the New Zealand All Blacks (it's the color of the jersey, not the players) versus France. As expected, the All Blacks KILLED France. It was a really cool game to watch and again, I liked it so much better than American Football. For those of you who think our Football is the roughest game around, think again. Rugby is just as tough and the guys don't wear a single pad! All they wear is a mouthguard. I think I may have to catch some rugby on the tube now, too. Before every game, the All Blacks do the Haka, a traditional Maori dance. It's quite a sight to behold, all these big rugby players doing this dance with such enthusiasm. The Haka, translated, means:

I die! I die! I live! I live!
I die! I die! I live! I live!
This is the
hairy man
Who fetched the Sun
And caused it to shine again
One upward
step! Another upward step!
An upward step, another.. the Sun shines!!

Today, I've just been wandering the city, mostly looking for an internet cafe where I can plug my camera in AND the connection is fast, apparently a difficult combination here. And internet cafes aren't nearly as common here as they were in Australia where they were pretty much all over the place. Tomorrow, Sylvia is taking me to Sheep World! I'm told there are baby sheep to be held...