Good StuffAnd so to New Zealand, and meeting up with my lady friend's sister after a short stay in Auckland. From there the Coromandel peninsula, and then to the famous Waitomo glowworm caves. Sun! Sights! Strange mutilation of vowels! The Coromandel was particularly special, being a peninsula in the top left of the North Island draped in spectacular coastlines. For my money Cathedral Cove (home of a particularly photogenic rock arch that I didn't properly photograph) was one of the most scenic places we visited and definitely trumped the equally famous Hot Water Beach. It's an exciting prospect; using the beach based hot spring to dig your own jacuzzi, but I challenge you to successfully excavate a hole a) deep enough for three people, b) with tiny beach shovels, c) in very wet sand, d) where the sea keeps washing in, and e) in less than the average human lifespan. Finally, whatever you've heard about the spectacular Waitomo glowworm caves is probably true. Worth every cent, thousands of little blue glowy things, each one of which is a hideous little glob of snot and stringy mucus up close. <3 Bad StuffAuckland was kinda crap. I've been warned by many people, and I can confirm it's one of the blandest, most character-less places I've ever been to. I'm glad I only went for a few days. Even the tourist information in the city basically amounts to "Yeh there are ... shops, some bars, and HEY look at all this stuff outside Auckland!". Otherwise Hot Water Beach was a let down, as I said, and the rest of my comments are probably best covered in the section below. So... down you go. Go on. Mood StuffSometimes you feel like you're sat on the precipice of a genuine spell of utter despair, and that basically summed up the first few days in Kiwiland. We'd just come from a warm, sunny, beach and rainforest laden slice of utter paradise where (reminder) I'd just proposed. From that, to Auck-Bland, cool-ish weather and no clear idea of what to expect in terms of scenery. It was sobering, I guess. It eased off imperceptibly, and gradually I felt like I was back in the vein of exploring a new amazing country, but those first few days felt a bit like a veneer of smiles over a sticky centre of insecurity, doubt, and worrying you'd done the right thing. At the risk of being overly frank, one thing I was perhaps surprised about was the impact of my other half's sister's presence. It's never a personal thing, but sometimes having people around (continuously, no less) that you're not as familiar with can make it... difficult... to be frank about, say, having a particularly down day or feeling a panic attack coming on. Despite my concerns it was actually fine; there were enough occasions where the two ladies were off doing their own thing that I could be by myself and not worry about any kind of social pressure.
So that was good. Unlike Auckland.
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Author28 year old computer scientist/physicist with major depressive disorder, a need to write, and a deep-rooted mistrust of beetroot. Categories
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February 2018
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