Walking around Auckland some more

Today is a public holiday, the Queen's Birthday! No, of course it's not really her birthday, but we need to celebrate it sometimes, so why not today?


I stopped by the lab for a bit to check my email.
Then, I headed towards the Sky Tower, where the Auckland Tourism Information Centre is located. It seems as if all my trips start out from there, because the people are really helpful, especially with information about the public transportation system.

I needed information about how to get to Kingsland, an area just outside Auckland center, where I wanted to look at an apartment. I did get on the right bus, but I wasn't sure where to get off, so I had to do quite a bit of walking around and asking people for directions (I asked two people, and both sent me in the wrong direction!!) but I did find it eventually.

The apartment was on the second floor of a little computer store. There were two rooms that I could rent, one small one for 100 NZD a week, and a bigger one for 120 NZD. I even would have been able to get internet there relatively cheaply, but the dirty stove and the fact that I would have had to share the bathroom with the 45 year old male owner settled the argument for me :D
So for now, I'm still living at The Railway Campus.


After I made my way back to Auckland center, I wanted to check out the "Coast to Coast Walkway." This 16 km long trail runs from downtown Auckland (the Waitemata Harbour in the North) through Onehunga Lagoon (the Manukau Harbour in the South) or the other way around. The travel guide estimated that it takes about 4-6 hours.
I didn't get very far, to be honest, because the trail is poorly marked, so I kept losing my way. Also, there are a few beautiful parks along the way, so I got sidetracked.

I think, I'll try walking it the weekend after next, when I get back from Christchurch.


Later that night, I decided to try the kitchen area for real. I had looked at it last week already, but I hadn't really cooked anything in it.
So I packed up a my little plastic box (part of the "crockery set") with food and kitchen ware and headed towards the kitchen.
Unlike last time I saw it (at 10 am in the morning) it was packed full! I had a hard time finding a free sink and stove.

I made some vegetable soup (my specialty) which tasted rather horrible, because the tomato base had "sugar syrup" added to it and I didn't see it on time... So I fished out the veggies and threw the soup away. Next time, I'll definitely read the list of ingredients very carefully!

While I was cooking, I watched some of the other students prepare their meals. A few of them just cooked pasta and threw some kind of tomato sauce over it, but some started unwrapping heavy kitchen gear.
One girl busily scraped the inside of a wok, while another one cooked little bits of meat in the oven (reminded me of chicken kebab, and it looked really yummy!). Finally, a group of Koreans violently chopped chicken thighs with one of those big, rectangular knives.
The smells were amazing (nothing burned!).