Auckland, New Zealand

This is a huge city (geographically) with no people. Both islands of New Zealand (North and South) contain about 4 million people. Over a million of them live in Auckland.

When we stepped off the ship yesterday, our immediate reaction was "this is Vancouver". After touring around a bit, we'll restate as "this is Vancouver, Victoria, Seattle and San Francisco" - but without the people and the high-rises (outside the downtown core). The weather is the same as home - today it's cloudy, foggy, and raining - about 15 degrees C. The primary difference we can see is that there are very few apartment buildings, and almost everyone lives in a single-level, detached home. Apparently, up until a few years ago the standard lot size in Auckland was a quarter acre. Imagine a city the size of Vancouver where everyone has a detached house on their own plot of land - that's Auckland.

They have great infrastructure here - although no rapid transit (cuz they don't need it). The buses are clean and frequent, and their roadways are well maintained (most are newly paved for the International Rugby Finals on here now). Overall, the city seems very livable.

But I'm never one to talk about something without addressing it's shortcomings. Auckland (if you're a Kiwi, please forgive me) seems "quaint". It's almost like their the irritating young brother who just wants some attention. Because of its location, though, it never gets it. The city, seems to me, almost tries too hard to impress. They're proud of their circa-1975 shopping centre, and the museum is filled mostly with British stuff and memories of the war (if I was to place you in some parts of the  museum, and asked you to guess where you were, you'd likely say "Victoria"). The "trendy shopping area" is kind of like Kerisdale, and they're very proud of the fact that "Bill Clinton has been here twice."

And the city is also expensive. Housing is expensive (we hear $1M-$3M near the downtown), and when Laura and I stepped out to buy some cold medicine last night (she's got a cold), it was $22 for a few tablets - and the druggist helped us with the right selection!

Internet acccess here is like 1995. WiFi is available, but it's hard to find and it's slow and unreliable. I've heard the same thing about most of Australia - hopefully we have better luck.

At dinner last night we all (Cathy, Frank, Laura and me) all agreed that we shouldn't take our situation at home for granted. Reasonable taxes, good climate, great infrastructure, super food, and compared to most of the rest of the world - we live well for cheap!