Welcome to Auckland

So, a few years ago I arrived in Auckland. The city of sails. It was March 2011. My first impression of Auckland? Warm. I boarded the plane in Brussels in around 0°C, to arrive in Auckland in around 25°C. Apparently we were having a hot early fall.

New Zealand is a former British colony, and we still drive on the left-hand side of the road. That’s going to take some time go get used to.

Second impression: Why does driving from the airport to the Central Business District involve driving 5km through the suburbs? Anyway, you can take the train to the city, right? Emm, no. But you can catch the (wink, wink) Airbus.

I’m living in North Shore City. Finding my way around. Flatting somewhere around Takapuna. And thinking one day I’ll get used to these place names.

Auckland is a nice place to live. Generally less stressful than what I was used to in Belgium. If you want to go on a tramp in the wilderness, the Waitakere Ranges are a 30 to 45 minutes drive from the city. If you like the sea, it’s everywhere around here. You have a choice of white beaches, black beaches, beaches where you can go for a swim, beaches where you can go surfing, crowded beaches, quiet beaches.

Karekare beach

Drive north for half an hour, and you’re in the middle of nowhere. The kind that doesn’t exist any more in Belgium since a long time now. Drive half an hour south on the other hand, and you’ll just reach the southernmost suburb of Papakura.

This city is huge. I measure 45 km from Torbay to Papakura. They don’t make them this size in Belgium. Comparing to Brussels, 45 km is the distance between the towns of Aalst and Leuven.

The days pass. March and April are sunny and warm. Since I don’t have a car yet, I walked for 20 minutes to work when I couldn’t get a ride to work. Something immediately strikes me as odd. Something is missing.

Bicycles. I don’t see any bikes on the road. Not a single one. Despite the nice weather. What’s going on?

See, this city has a very clear idea of which side of your car is the correct side. The inside. If you’re going somewhere, and you’re on the outside of your car, then you’re doing it wrong. Half a kilometre to the shop, that would be a 5 minute walk, right? Wrong! Normal people call that a one minute drive.

But still. Suppose I’m living a few kilometres from the beach. That would be a short ride on my bike, right?

Well. Let me explain something.

The rumour goes, some curious beings called bicyclists have arrived from some weird, far away planet. They are supposed to look a bit like humans, but with some funny metal construction called a bicycle underneath them. And they have to move their legs in some odd way to go forward. And they have some funny kind of helmet on their head. If you look around for a couple of days you might spot one. In real life!

That one could be me. One day I decided to a bike ride to Long Bay, the northernmost of the East Coast Bays. If you ride your bicycle on the North Shore, you’ll probably do about 15 height meters per km. That too takes some time to get used to.

Long Bay beach

And, hereby I present to you: Yet Another Blog. So what am I going to talk about next? Mostly about life here in New Zealand and Auckland. Maybe some travelling. Maybe some event. Maybe some things that I’m interested in. Like geeky computer stuff, or the behaviour of traffic, or the counter-intuitiveness of statistics.

In case you’re wondering: no, you’re not the first one to think I’m weird. But anyway. See you around next time.