Well. I did it. I finally did it. I finally lost my mind. That’s the only possible explanation for me moving halfway around the world “just because”. But you know what? Losing my mind feels pretty good.

Ok truth be told, it feels great now, but it didn’t feel so good at first. For those of you who haven’t spent over 24 hours traveling, let me tell you something: You sweat. A lot. When you pack over 100 bodies in a flying metal cylinder, make them sit on the tarmac for 45 minutes without a/c, and then have them in the air for 11 hours it doesn’t lead to the freshest of smells. Add being stressed on top of that and you have a great recipe for smelly traveller. It wouldn’t’ve been as big of a deal if I had a cute little travel deodorant in my carry-on, but I made the decision to try a spray on deodorant right before I left. Can you guess where that bad boy was while I became the human form of Niagara Falls? Yep. Nice and snug in my checked bag. I didn’t even think about how I would smell while travelling, probably because I’ve read too many romance books. In romance books the women always smell like sunshine and flowers and the men all smell like the woods and manly sweat, which “shouldn’t smell good but somehow does” (you can find almost that exactly quote describing a man’s smell in every romance book). The only way a man would’ve enjoyed the way I smelled when I landed in Auckland is if he really loved corn nuts. I lost track of the number of times I wiped down with a damp paper towel in the bathroom (which Hannah told me is called a “whore’s bath”). Suffice it to say, my entrance into New Zealand was not the grand beginning I had pictured. But my stuff and I made it, smell and all.

This was my face after the guy told me it would be about a 30 minute walk to get to my gate at LAX.

And this was how I felt sitting on the tarmac at midnight for what felt like an eternity.

After I landed, I took an Uber for the first time ever to get to my Airbnb and I wasn’t kidnapped or murdered, so that somewhat improved the start to my life 2.0. Auckland is absolutely HUGE and it took 50 minutes to get from the airport to my Airbnb, which wasn’t even the whole city from north to south. I went to bed pretty early my first night because, you know, death by travel the day before, which meant I woke up pretty early the next morning. I was too scared to try and figure out the bus system at 7am so I decided to walk to the store and get some food.

This was the amazing view I got to see while I walked.

This was the not so amazing view I got on the way back.

And that doesn’t even show all the stairs or the hill several blocks long right after them. It also doesn’t show the man who was in front of me carrying his bike. I was very glad I was behind him so he didn’t see me struggling with my one bag of groceries.

I’ve learned North Shore is quite hilly so I’ve got to be prepared when I go out on foot. I’m breaking my body in and have sore calfs and blisters right now, but I’ll get used to it soon enough. Until I’m brave enough to try driving on the other side of the road, I have to rely on my feet and the public transport system. It’s actually quite enjoyable to be on the bus because I don’t have to worry about all the other crazy drivers out there and can just sit back and enjoy the city around me. Of course, it was hard for me to enjoy the sights very much my first few days because I was so stressed about missing my stops and making sure I got to appointments on time. But today I hardly even looked at my phone to double check the bus location and schedule! By the end of next week I’ll be a cool city girl who breezes on and off buses without a care in the world. Here are a few shots I got of my bus journey so far.

My view for a lot of my travel time

Me waiting at a bus stop near down town (where a stranger told me I had a “nice outfit, nice face, and nice everything else”)

View of the CBD when traveling south from North Shore

An artsy shot of me waiting for the bus (Hannah inspired)

Honestly, not much else has happened yet. I’ve mostly been setting up boring stuff like my cell phone plan and making appointments to see apartments. I spent almost all day yesterday out and about. I had time to kill between my first and second apartment viewings so I hung out in the Auckland CBD. I went to the Woolworth’s to get some soup to help my sore throat and then sat on a bench in Albert Park and read a book to kill time before I had to jump on my next bus. Albert Park is right by AUT (Auckland University of Technology) so I got to walk by the campus, which was kind of cool. I heard the class bells go off and it took me back to my days at BYU. It’s comforting to know that universities all over the world use the “you’d better run” bells to get students to class.

This is the pavilion in the middle of Albert Park (you can see a few buildings in the CBD behind the trees)

Hanging out in Hobsonville before one of my apartment viewings (the weather was amazing that day!)

I went to church today and met some really awesome people who I’m hoping will be featured in some of my upcoming blog posts. I know absolutely no one on this half of the hemisphere so it would be pretty nice to make some friends. One of the coolest things about church was just getting to listen to the New Zealand accent for 2 hours. Auckland is a huge melting pot of people so I really hadn’t heard much of that amazing Kiwi accent until today. So far I’ve heard a lot of Chinese, some Indian, and several European languages I couldn’t name. It could be because the locals are driving their own cars instead of busing like the rest of us.

That about wraps it up for this week. I’m really hoping to get an apartment (sorry, I mean flat) this next week so fingers crossed that I’ll have pictures of my sweet new crib in my next post!