Shellfish and Auckland

So this is going to be the beginning of 3 separate blogs to cover what I've been doing for the last week and a half. Basically, we spent the last week in Northland without any internet or phone, so I couldn't do any updating. This first blog is about the activities of last weekend (starting Feb. 20th).

On Friday, as a part of our field research, we had to do a shellfish survey in a harbor that was about an hour away. As we woke up to get ready, we were greeted by 40 knot winds and torrential downpour. After talking to the teachers, we decided we were going to go through with the survey despite the weather. So we all loaded into the vans and experienced one of the most nauseating car rides ever. Everyone, even people that don't get carsick, were feeling it by the end of this trip. Once we got out there, we were quickly briefed on our assignment and what we were supposed to do. Then we headed out to our different stations to begin our surveys. I was in a group with Brenna and Kara, we were team three and named ourselves Triple Threat. We had the second furthest point to walk to, so we spent about 15 minutes being pelted by rain, walking in 3 inches of water, out to our station. Once we got there we had to dig up a small squares worth of sediment, then siphon through it to figure out how many shellfish we had collected. The problem was it was really difficult to tell which ones were alive and which were dead, so the process actually took a while. After we finished the first point, we moved inshore and did 3 more. While this may sound tedious or annoying, we actually had such a good time. We were instantly soaked, which we just accepted, and then began to enjoy. We were singing and dancing in the rain, and just making the best out of the weather. It was amazing. This is a picture of T-Threat after we came back:

Kara, Me and Brenna completely soaked

After we got back from the survey, we had a quick debrief and then started our weekend off. It was Brenna's 22nd birthday on Thursday, so we decided to go to the local pub Friday night. After everyone dried off, ate dinner, and put on clean clothes we headed to the pub. In hopes of good weather, I didn't bring a raincoat, and then obviously got rained on during the 25 minute walk. I was also wearing flip flops with really bad traction, so I ended up slipping and slicing my toe also. Once we got to the pub, I cleaned up my toe and we all started playing pool. Let me tell you, it is quite difficult in NZ because all the balls are probably half the size that they are in the States. After hanging out for a while, we decided to walk home to rest up for our trip to Auckland the next day.

At about 10am Saturday morning, we took a 45 minute van ride to get to the train station that would take us into Auckland. Once we arrived we checked into our hostel and then split into smaller groups. I was with a bunch of girls that all decided to go shopping and just kind of wander the city. It definitely isn't like any American city I've seen...I think Toronto is probably the best comparison I can make. After some more shopping, and getting sushi for lunch, it was time for Abby and me to go find David. After a huge debacle in his hostel trying to figure out where he was, we found him in the lobby. We then walked back to our hostel to meet up with everyone from EQ and get dinner. We walked down to the Viaduct Harbour and ate in this really cute restaurant.

Me, David and Abby in front of the harbour

Me, Riley and John in the restaurant

After dinner we did some bar hopping around the city. The first place we went had live music, which was what drew us there. However, after listening to the singer for 5 minutes, we couldn't stand being in the bar any longer. So we basically ran out of that bar, and headed to another one that we had noted earlier in the day. This bar also had a band, but they were a cover band singing classic American music which we all loved. Also, we started chatting up this bartender who ended up being from Detroit...how random! All the Michigan girls started freaking out, so we started talking about restaurants and bars in Ann Arbor.

A bunch of us with Adam, the bartender from Detroit

We then decided we wanted to go to a club, so we started walking around trying to find a place that looked fun. This was when we realized we were severely under dressed. It was like the city underwent a transformation, because suddenly the streets were filled with girls in 4 inch heels and little black dresses, and all the guys were dressed in pants and nice shirts. This was when we first realized that Auckland nightlife had a strict dress code. We decided that we would roll with it and try and get into a club anyways. At the first club we were immediately declined because we were all wearing flip flops. We then decided we had to re-evaluate. This ended with David and our friend John going back to the bar we had come from, and the girls trying to get into the club again. This time, we walked right through and the bouncer didn't say a thing. That was where we spent the rest night dancing to late 90's music, because thats what NZ thinks is popular.

The next morning we rode the train back out of Auckland, met up with the van and drove home. We all were reminded of the lingering work we had to do, which is what everyone spent the rest of Sunday and Monday morning completing. Then, by 9am Monday, we were off in the vans heading to Northland.