Te Atatu Peninsula, Auckland, New-bloody-Zealand!!
Oddly, I awoke at 07:30, without the need for an alarm, which in itself is highly unusual to anybody that knows me.
I didn't need to adjust my bearings, and thankfully didn't have a 'where the hell am I?' moment either. What I also didn't have was any coffee. BM is a coffee drinker, but as she has one cup in the morning which she picks up on route to work. She doesn't feel the need, fairly enough, to have coffee and coffee related paraphernalia in the house. This is obviously something I shall rectify over the next few days!
Grabbing a lift into the City with BM in her Scooby, I was impressed with the commute, and the views out over the bay, to our destination the Auckland CBD.
A view that must be quite calming as you drive to work, I thought to myself as BM swore at most of the other road users.
The CBD, or Central Business District of Auckland, is as you would expect, where all the high rises and glass towers of Auckland reside. Towering over the steep hilly streets, and the old buildings nestled in amongst them. It's a city, like most big cities, the majority of which you could swap parts around with each other, and very little would seem out of place. Apart from the moments when you turn and look down one of the streets, and catch the sun glistening off the waters of the harbour bay.
It was time to go exploring, and get a feel for this city and it's vibe.
The first stop was the Sky Tower, Ok it was the second stop. The first was a coffee shop to get my all important caffeine fix.
So, the second stop, was the Sky Tower. The weather was clear and crisp, and it seemed like the perfect location to see over the city and get a feel for its layout. As it should be when you're 328 metres in the air.
My record with heights is not the best. It's not as bad as it used to be, when as a child I was clinging on for dear life to a support beam on the top landing of the Pompidou Centre in Paris, begging to go back down, but refusing to let go of the beam. It's not that bad anymore, but it's not generally a happy place for me.
I had the lift up to the top to myself, and was pleased about this as the lift cleared the confines of the shaft to expose me to the rapidly shrinking world through the glass doors. I edged back against the wall, and happened to look down. At the glass floor, and the increasing drop below.
Well, this is a good start, I thought, as I told myself to breath!
Once up to the top, I found I wasn't. There was another lift to take you up, just that little bit more, oh joy.
Thankfully this lift didn't have glass anything, it was a decent honest nice lift, with no desire to scare me. I think it felt it didn't need to, as stepping out into the uppermost floor was a stunning vista of Auckland. All spread out 300 odd metres below me. 300 odd metres. 300 odd metres higher up than I was comfortable with thank you very much.
I had to do the Ferris Bueller bit, and lean my head onto the glass to look straight down, and found I felt suddenly... Not much. I felt a little giddy for sure, but my legs weren't shaking, and I hadn't wet myself or started crying, yet.
The view down, and all around for that matter, was as spectacular as I'd expected. Probably more so when I looked out over the harbour towards Devonport & Rangitoto, and caught the sun sparkling on the waters of Waitemata Harbour, which is aptly how the harbour got it's name.
After conquering the 'lean on the window' thing, I watched as an elderly couple stood on a glass panel in the floor, with nothing below until the pavement some, I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, 300 odd bloody metres below.
They seemed happy enough gazing down, so of course, if a couple of oldies can casually stroll and stand on a sheet of glass, then I could. After all, I'd just proved my fear of heights was firmly in my pas... Oh dear god!!!! I had to hold the handrail for a few seconds, as my body screamed 'What.The.Fuck.Are.You.Doing?!?!?!!?'..... Fear of heights 2 - Me 1. Dammit!
After a few seconds I was happy enough to stand unaided and take a couple of snaps looking down, but even the sign saying that the glass was three inches thick, and stronger than concrete didn't inspire me to stay there much longer. Nor did the smile the old couple gave me, as they passed by me again, probably on their way to do a bungy or SkyJump!
Talking of which, the SkyJump did look like fun, for other people. As I watched another hapless fool get lowered to alongside the viewing gallery, I assume for our amusement, before plummeting all the way to the ground attached by a cable and a winch.. Rather them than me.
After getting the lift back down, standing on the glass floor, getting brave now, I headed off to meet BM and some of her colleagues for a late lunch.
We all bundled into Paulines car, and ended up at the Longroom in Ponsonby, an area that, judging by the amount of check shirts, selvedge denim & wayfarers is the Hoxton of Auckland, Hipster central.
Amusingly I was pleased that Hipsters the world over look identically unique, or is it uniquely identical... pah, no matter.
Had a lunch of Pork Belly in a sweet chilli sauce, with chups (Ancient Kiwi word for chips!) to mop up the sauce. Excellent scoff, and could've quite happily scoffed another plate, but obviously I didn't want to show BM up in front of her colleagues, by being a glutton, unusually for me.
The rest of the day, was mooching around the city, stopping for coffees once in a while, and trying to find an Apple store, or reseller that had the Kiwi plug for my MacBooks power pack.. To no avail, although fortunately BM had a spare, and was gracious enough to let me swipe it.
As I was new in town, and BM was kindly chaperoning me, I tagged along with her after work to the hair salon she was booked into.
As I settled down with a magazine, and BMs stylist Nick started working his magic, BM pointed out that I had mentioned getting a trim at some point, as the grey (silver blonde I think is the correct colour) in my hair was starting to resemble a pair of swans wings stapled either side of my head, like a dusty version of The Flash.... That, and in the mornings I looked like Doc Brown from Back to the Future.
So while BMs hair was doing whatever it is girls hair does when they're sat there for a while with bits of tinfoil on their heads, Nick set to work on my scruffy swede.
I must say that after years of going into my barber shop, and just telling them to trim it & thin it, having a wash and a cut was very relaxing and quite enjoyable (yes, I'm a big girl!), and Nick did a damn fine job of trying to make me look presentable (less of a tramp!).
Although after years of going to my local barber shop, I did wince inside when paying, only to remember the exchange rate of NZDollars to GBPounds is about 2 to 1, at which point i winced inside again, but not quite so much.
I didn't dare ask how much BM paid!
Then it was back to the fortress for a completely unearned (on my part) rest!
No comments:
Post a Comment