New Zealanders love to go shopping with massive discounts on Boxing Day, the day after Christmas. But I didn't spend a dime. Instead, I stayed home and worked on finalizing a publication for the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. I only had to make some small tweaks, so when I was done I went for a long urban hike through eastern Auckland. I walked to the Domain (the big city park), tried to head east, accidentally ended up back at the Domain, went east for real, found some cool mangroves, and then wound my way through hills until I came out at Mission Bay and walked myself back along the waterfront to home.
Wednesday I went back to the same area of town with John and Sehui for some Korean lunch at a different restaurant where I had pork belly and squid bulgogi. Yum!
Later on, I got on a ferry across they bay to Devonport where Julie's partner Simon and his friend James picked me up off the beach in a small boat to go fishing. We tried trolling around some New Zealand Navy vessels, which seemed to be totally unguarded except for the signs warning us to stay 200 m away at all times. Trolling wasn't working out, so we anchored near a big rock where some seabirds were going at a school of small fish. James caught a big kahawai right away, but then the three of us only got small snappers that Simon wouldn't let us keep. As the sun was setting, Simon dropped me off on the end of the Devonport Wharf, and I caught a ferry back across the harbor and walked home.
Thursday I took John out to parkour again, and ended up teaching a mini-lesson for him, and a tall ship sailor who was keen to learn some basics. There were also about seven other people who showed up, including a small group from Switzerland who have been traveling the world documenting themselves doing parkour in different countries.
After the practice, I was trying to plan a trip to Hobbiton with some people on couchsurf.org who were offering rides out to Matamata. Around 10pm, the organizer asked me to check if I could get tickets online. Turns out the soonest opening was at 8 am...on Tuesday Jan 3. So we didn't end up going to Hobbiton after all.
Instead, I woke up to a call at the building's entrance from a delivery person. My Christmas presents from Jess had arrived! So I spent the morning opening those and relaxing as if it was Christmas morning all over again.
In the evening, the flat went out to meet our friend Steven and his flatmate Jacob for Korean Karaoke in the city. It turns out that bot Steven and Jacob are total bosses when it comes to karaoke, with some of the best belting I've ever heard from a distance of 3 feet. They made a really hard act to follow. Apparently the manager liked having us around, because after our first hour was up he kept tacking on an extra 30 minutes for free. We decided it was time to go after the third time we got a bonus.
We were heading to another friend's flat to hang out, but we decided to stop and have some pizza. It turns out that Auckland's NY pizza chain does a much better job recreating New York pizza than any place I ever visited in Portland.
Eventually we did make it to the party flat with a couple drinks in tow, and we were stopped by a security guard who wanted to know how many people were in our party, and which room in the apartment building we were going to. Maybe he was just taking notes so that if there were complaints he'd know who to talk to? Regardless, we had a good time up in their flat talking and having a mini dance party.
And finally, it was Saturday, New Year's Eve. I spent the morning doing some more work on my journal article and then went out for a parkour jam at 2. Only when I left the flat I saw a message on Facebook from someone who was going to be 'substantially late' because he had just eaten lunch. Then, when I arrived at the meeting place, I checked Facebook again and the other group that was coming had posted that they would be at least 45 minutes late.
One hour and and one Mormon missionary later I was frustrated and ready to leave, but just as I was about to go everyone showed up. So I decided to stick around and train with them for a bit. Unfortunately we had really strange luck. We left the first spot right away because it started raining; a security guard asked us to leave the covered place we moved to; we were able to stay at the next spot for at least 45 minutes and then we moved about 200 ft and security found us immediately. Then the jam's organizer lead us to another place on the same property we'd just been kicked off of and started training again. I wasn't comfortable, so I just took a walk. By the time I got back 5 minutes later, the same guard was already there with backup who was threatening to prosecute us for trespassing. At that point I was basically done, so I just cooled down at the next spot and left the group when they were moving on.
I had been planning on trying to get across the harbour for a New Year's blues dance after party, but after the parkour debacle I was feeling too stressed out and opted to stay home. John and Sehui, who were originally planning on going to a Latin Party decided to come back to the flat with Steven, and we ended up hanging out with a plate of brie, sauteed prawns, feta and jam, toast, and chocolate until midnight. We all gathered on the balcony for an eye level view of a fireworks show that was shooting off of the Sky Tower. In the end, it was a really relaxing evening with good friends, and I was really happy going to bed at a reasonable time.
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