The flight from Singapore to Auckland went very quickly. I have to confess that I fell asleep pretty much as soon as we finished our accent, and woke up two hours before we landed, so it felt like the flight took about the same time as to get to Rome! It was pretty darn awesome too to be greeted by a giant statue of a dwarf lord in the    arrivals hall! Immigration was a lot easier than I thought it would be (though soooooo slooooow) and it wasn’t long at all until I was at the Airbnb and able to shower.

I gotta say guys, this. is. AWESOME! Just on the taxi ride from the airport I saw loads of trees I hadn’t seen before, AND some strange birds! That said, I did spend a good ten minutes this afternoon watching the beautiful fluffy grey bird that I’d never seen before, only for it to turn round and reveal itself to be a small pigeon with its feathers ruffled in the wind. I’ve rather started to doubt my ornithological knowledge after that.

I’ve been here three days now and I’ve got my phone contract sorted (yeah, please don’t text my English phone because I won’t be checking that sim very often), bank card, bus card and enrolled on the course (yaaaay!) but still no house.

The housing market here is like nothing I’ve ever seen before, it’s so fast! I emailed an add 48 minutes after it was put up only to get a reply back that they already had 20 people booked for viewings and weren’t taking any more for the moment! Luckily, as I’m not working yet I can just sit in a cafe overlooking the harbour with a beer and refresh my screen every half an hour. I’ve had one viewing and got three more tomorrow so with any luck I’ll have found a place by next week. One of the places even has a dog <3

I’m particularly keen to move out having found that the Airbnb I’m staying in doesn’t have a lock (on my bedroom door OR the front door) so I’m having to carry everything of value with me everywhere I go. It also doesn’t help that when I was taking photos of the sky yesterday evening, my Airbnb host pointed out all the local drug dealers in the alley and told me not to go out after midnight as the criminal gangs congregate there and it isn’t safe to let them see you. Next time I probably will be suspicious if I see an accommodation so conspicuously cheaper than anything else, but to be fair I haven’t actually had any problems.

I haven’t done much sightseeing yet (unless you count going to all the different residential areas) so you’ll have to wait for more pretty pictures.

Auckland is a beautiful city though (apart from the one dodgy bit where I am 😉 )! It does have some very busy roads which I like to try and avoid, but it has a huuuuuge park full of a lot of trees I don’t know, and the harbour is nice. Ferries to the local islands are pretty cheap too (ranging from £4 – 20 return) and I plan to visit a few of them next week.

Right, I’m update you in the next few days, as soon as I’ve found a house. Most places are unfurnished too so I’ll need to go bed hunting. Any tips are definitely welcome as I’ve never done any of this before!