My Nomadic Year: Day Five Part One: I bid Auckland adieu and hit the road!

Most people who know me know of my aversion to smart phones. Part of the problem is that I am currently going back and forth between two countries and I cannot find an ideal solution for my lifestyle. However, I thought it would be a good idea to finally get a smart phone for all this travelling I would be doing this year. So in London this past summer I bought an Alcatel phone to replace my still going strong little red Samsung pay as you go phone, but I never switched over because I just could not use that Alcatel phone. I won't bore anyone with the details but it is one crap phone!

So when I got back to LA, Tracfone sent me a free smart phone to replace my US pay as you go phone. This phone, an LG, was quite nice, so I decided it would be my travel phone. When I got to Auckland I ws about to purchase a Vodafone sim when I found out the phone was locked. I spent an evening attempting to unlock the phone myself until I learnt that Tracfone phones are impossible to unlock, and just cannot be used outside the USA.

So my brother brought over my nephew's old phone, a Samsung phone that looks pretty much like the LG. I opened the back to put in a New Zealand sim card and lo and behold, it turned out to be another Tracfone!!!

What this meant was that I could not use my voucher for a free Auckland Uber ride to get from Blair's apartment to the hotel where my brother's birding tour was to begin. Plan B was to go on foot; I had walked to and from town several times and it would take 15-20 minutes without luggage, and the big hills are all going from town, not to it. However I was thinking of London streets at rush hour, filled with pedestrians, and when I looked at the Auckland bus site, with its detailed information, that looked like a much more viable option.

I gave myself plenty of go wrong time by choosing a bus two busses ahead of one that would get me there on time.

And now we interrupt our regular programming for a public service announcement; if anyone finds themselves needing accommodation in Auckland, I highly recommend Blair's flat, which is listed on Air BNB for I can also put you in touch. I meant to take some photos but I forgot! However, here is a selfie in front of the deer in his hallway....

And this photo was a mistake, but I kind of like the still life of my glasses on top of the (super comfy) bed, looking out onto the hallway. (The deer is to the left of the trees!) The flat has a washer, dryer (upside down hanging from the ceiling!), dishwasher, and Sky TV via a huge screen projector. Close to the city center and lots of restaurants.

Back to my bus story, I got to the bus stop on time, in fact a few minutes early, and the first bus never came. I considered walking, but knew that as soon as I set off a bus would come. Of course, because I stayed, it didn't. The second bus was 15 minutes late. started waving it down and suddenly another bus pulled into the bus stop and the bus that I wanted sailed on by without even slowing. The next bus, arriving at the time I should have been at the hotel parking lot, took twice as long as what the web site had predicted. If a bus is off schedule, it stops at a stop for several minutes "to regulate the schedule". This seemed to happen on every Auckland bus I took. This one also hit every red light possible. So in the end I was 20 minutes late and yelled at by my brother, but what else is new? Still, it was a good lesson; I'll have to add way more going wrong time in future!

There are 16 people in the tour group including my brother and our local guide and driver, and we are travelling in a small bus with a trailer. Our first stop was "Ark in the Park", a nature reserve in the mountains not too far out of Auckland.