My views do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.
Wellington and Auckland (if you’re from North America, pronounce it like Oakland or people won’t know what you’re talking about) were two of the three city ports in the six New Zealand ports on our two week run. I love cities. Wellington was a shuttle bus port (and we usually left early in the afternoon, which didn’t leave much time), which either meant I had to get out there early before things were really open or wait until open shuttles to give guests priority on the shuttle busses. I mostly used these cities to catch up on civilization– you know, look for a pirate costume, a grocery store, or use the city WiFi to spend hours on the phone. New Zealand was on the other side of the world, but it was only a three hour time difference from California– it was just yesterday there.
My Uncle Michael’s niece, Laura, originally from Argentina was living in Wellington, and he thought we would get along great. She is also into performance art, though she does more clowning and stand up than I do. The couple of times that I made it into Wellington, I tried to meet up with her. The first time, we met up at a little restaurant called Sweet Mother’s Kitchen that I absolutely fell in love with. It was quirky with awesome food. She was was flying in, and by the time she arrived, I had to go meet the shuttle bus. We managed to connect beyond our WhatsApp group chat for about 10 minutes before I had to go.
The next time, we managed to meet for her lunch break at her new job, so we were able to spend about an hour together! She was absolutely delightful, and I wish we could have had more time together.
Auckland
The best part about Auckland was that it wasn’t just a city, we docked right in the middle of it. No shuttles, no water shuttles, no trains– it was right there– streets of civilization. There was a grocery store, an H&M right by the pier, and even a party store where we stocked up on Halloween decorations for the ship. Mostly, I got my business done in Auckland, but one day I decided to be a tourist. There was a Sky Tower that people jumped off of. It was maybe a mile from the ship, uphill, but the blocks flew by like they do in New York City. When I arrived, there was no line, so I bought a ticket (I think I even got a crew discount) to go to the top.
I walked around taking in the view of the city when I heard the familiar, “What are you doing here? They let you have a day off?” Of course, half the people there were guests on the ship. There was an option to jump off the top and slide down a cord to the bottom (I also heard that there was a bridge you could bungee jump off of and they would dip your head in the water). I wasn’t really interested in doing that. The crowd was gathered around. They said, “Look! That girl is about to jump!” It was Benjamin! This was the Christmas Cruise. Every day leading up to Christmas, we played some games in the piazza and then it ‘snowed.’ The first day, I was taking names of the people signing up for the games when a beautiful girl with long hair and thick eyelashes said her name was Benjamin. I laughed. Then I caught myself. Benjamin was a boy with cool long hair. The next day I almost made the same mistake. After that I remembered Benjamin’s name. His whole family was on the cruise and as the days went by, I really got to know them and would hang out chatting after activities. That evening they came to my trivia, and I asked Benjamin if he jumped off the Sky Tower that morning. How did I know? I saw him!
Back on the ship, I went out to the crew pool for some extra reception I can’t get in my room, and looked up. There was the Sky Tower! I was just there!
I really liked Auckland. It had narrow streets with plants and street cafes.
I liked this spot with the garden on the second floor. Though I never found any good sushi there, it was definitely a place where I could hang out more.