after three weeks in auckland...

...filled with partying, sleeping, wandering around and jobsearching i’m starting to feel more at home here. the first weeks are always weird, i know that by now, but when i left holland, i was able to spend time with my family, which makes homesickness more avoidable. when i travelled to indonesia by myself, i knew i would be back in singapore after a month. but this is something new and different, since i’ll be here for a year and need to look for a job, take care of myself and arrange all the things required when staying in another country for such a long time. and most importantly, i left a special someone behind and that sucks and hurts more than i could have ever imagined. it feels nice don’t get me wrong, after a long stage of numbness it’s a relief to know that there is someone that can actually touch you and make you feel again. a friend of mine once told me to enjoy every single feeling you have and trust me, life gets a lot easier that way.
so what have i exactly been doing? hmm let’s see. the most important thing for me was to find a job which hasn’t really happened yet. i’ve dropped my cv at various temp agencies, applied online to numerous jobs around the city and gone by a lot of cafes/bars and restaurants and seriously nobody needs anyone. i’ve talked to some people here in the hostel about jobs and everyone seems to be having the same problem! it is so frustrating since i haven’t worked for a while now and i really miss it. i don’t know if it has anything to do with the whole credit crisis or the fact that the holidays are coming up and most students are working now, but if i don’t get a job soon i might have to leave auckland and stay on a farm in the middle of nowhere (backpackers can work at farms for free accommodation and usually also food). but clare and maurits are arriving and i don’t want to leave yet! just keep hoping and trying i guess... i did work as a‘glassie’one night at a nightclub around the corner, and i can work there on call.
so besides looking for a job i’ve opened a bank account, got a simcard and an IRD number (which is something like a social security number, you need it to work, to pay taxes and stuff).
i found out that the gay scene in auckland sucks ass, but there are a lot of other cool places to party. hung out with my roomies, discovered many cheap places to eat (mostly asian foodcourts, mmm noodles), found out where the cheapest supermarket is and that it’s really not that bad to eat very unhealthy for about three weeks.
my camera is working again woohoo, so i’ve finally been able to wander around and take pictures, but i just went to the park so far (auckland domain, huge beautiful park and not that far from the centre). it was nice to get away from the always busy and noisy queens street where my hostel is located and to smell the trees and flowers and hear the birds (omg i’m such a hippie). unfortunately my hay fever is acting up again (a hippie AND a nasal spraying nerd, how about that!) but nothing i can’t handle. internet is costing me so much money and posting pictures will take forever, so i’ll do that some other time.
i finally talked to clare and she, maurits and giles (clare’s brother) are stuck in thailand and can’t fly out of bangkok, so they’re gonna travel down to singapore and fly to auckland from there. i’m still staying at ACB and booked a couple of beds for them in my room for when they arrive next week. it was so good to talk to them again after like six months!
uhm, what else is new...oh right! i booked a flight to sydney!!! i’ll be going feb 28th til march 9th, to experience mardi gras, apparently the biggest gay festival in the world and that special someone i was talking about is also coming so i’m filled with excitement. it’s a great feeling knowing that i don’t have to wait a whole year to see her again. i also discovered a website where you can look for couches to crash on: www.couchsurfing.com . it’s a fantastic way to meet locals wherever it is you’re going and more importantly to safe money on accommodation. i’ve heard a lot of stories from people who have been travelling for a while, just crashing on couches and never spending anything on accommodation! (mom and dad, stop worrying, it’s a legitimate site ok) i was lucky enough to find an awesome chick who is more than happy to let me crash at her place. so to be honest everything is actually going pretty good, besides the jobhunting. but it’s gonna be ok, no worries!

first week in auckland

my camera broke!! it sucks ass, so i can't show you any interesting sights yet. i haven't been doing that much touristy things anyway, since i like to take pictures of everything, so i will probably just get extremely frustrated not being able to do that. i brought it to the sony shop and received an estimate: 400 dollars!! that's almost two weeks worth of accommodation, so that really really pisses me off, especially since i had my camera in my bag the whole time, so i don't know what the hell happened to it. i'm desperately looking for a job now and so far i haven't been that successful. i wish things would be easier, but i should have just listened to my parents and studied something! i'm gonna have to step it up i guess.
i stayed at YHA the first three nights, on queens street in the middle of the centre. very good hostel, cleaner than i expected (jesus, there's a karaoke bar next to the internet place i'm at right now and this chinese dude is singing so loudly out of key, it's ridiculous!) but not that much to do. i switched to ACB also on queens street and it's more alive. there's a bar in the basement where there's a party every night, but so far i've only checked out the gay bars (already got kicked out of one, but that's just lesbian drama i won't bore you with). most are located on k road, right next to queens road, so it's about a ten minute walk. i have cool roommates, so that's good and we even have a fridge in the room. i must say that the meat here is incredibly tasty and cheap as well (three steaks for about 5 euros in the supermarket). there are a couple of very nice asian foodcourts around, so i can keep on eating singaporean style (noodles!!). i miss singapore alot, especially since my last weeks were so awesome and it was hard saying goodbye to jade and my dad. i must say that i've been a bit homesick lately, but that always happens in the beginning. i'm sometimes not in the mood to meet new people and have the same conversations over and over again (where are you from, how long are you staying here blablabla) i just hope i'll find a job soon to take my mind of things and to not worry about money anymore, even though i'll be fine for a while, but it feels good to know there's not just money going out, but also coming in...and it's comforting to know that my friends will be here soon!!
my camera will hopefully be fixed sometime next week, so i'll be showing you what this side of the world's like.

on the 'road'

i've just arrived in hong kong. it's uhm, almost noon and my plane to auckland leaves at 7pm. went online to check the exchange rates (duty free shopping woohoo) and discovered that 200 cigarettes cost 24 euros :O. it's very strange, but it hasn't hit me yet that i will be gone for a whole year. singapore turned out to be absolutely fantastic, despite some moments of utter frustration. i've met the coolest people the last few weeks and it kinda sucked to leave, but i'm really looking forward to see clare&mau again and to discover new things and meet new people. i wish i had something inspiring and meaningful to say about the past four months, but i guess i still have to wait for that 'looking back' moment and i'll probably find out how much this experience has changed me when i spend time again with the people who knew me before i left. i'm happy. i've left so much fears behind and i'm finally doing what feels right and i must say that this is the best feeling ever.
anyway, i'd planned to go into town and walk around a bit, but the weather looks like ass and i'm incredibly tired, so i'll just chill out at the airport. apparently there's a 4d cinema or something.
allright, so that's it for now, next time i'll be in new zealand :D

singapore zoo & night safari

to be honest, i'm not really a big fan of zoos for the obvious reasons. animals should live in the wild and be able to just be wild animals, but since we've destroyed (and keep on destroying) their homes, we have to take care of them. unfortunately many zoos treat their animals the worst way possible, locking them up in tiny oppressive cages, barely feeding them and not cleaning up. in the singapore zoo however, the animals are kept in spacious, landscaped environments simulating that of their natural habitat. these are separated from the visitors by deep dry or wet trenches, which makes the zoo a model of the 'open zoo' concept (aka, monkeys jumping around in the trees above you). the more dangerous animals such as leopards and jaguars are kept in glass fronted enclosures. the zoo, night safari and birdpark are all a part of the Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS), which strives to be a world class leisure attraction, providing excellent exhibits of animals presented in their natural environment, for the purpose of conservation, education and recreation. there are many educational programmes available and you can also adopt an animal. the zoo has a land area of 28 hectares and 16% of the species are threatened species. the night safari has 40 hectares of land and 29% of the animals are threatened. this is the only night safari on the world btw and if you ever have the privilege of spending some time in singapore, then you cannot miss it! what i really noticed in both the zoo and night safari is the amount of time spent on the decoration and the way the places are put together. also the people who work with the animals (either feeding or doing the shows) really like their jobs and care about the animals, which is nice to see.

(oh yeah, if you are walking around in the rainforest area of the night safari, then be careful with the huge bats flying around...one of them peed on my face (stop laughing it's not funny!!))

i took pictures of almost every single animal and spent so much time just staring at them, it was incredibly cool (some pics are a bit crappy though, but in my defense, animals move around the whole time, there was sometimes glass in between and my camera's zoom wasn't always good enough). the night safari was also an awesome experience, but unfortunately taking pictures there wasn't really possible (flash and animals is not a very good combo) so you will have to go there for yourself :)


pygmy hippos, kangeroo, boars


aldabra giant tortoises (pic above left shows how giant): the second largest tortoise after the galapagos tortoise and it can weigh up to 360 kg. they live in swamps, scrubland and coastal dunes, eating leaves, grass and carrion (including dead tortoises). the bottom right tortoise in the pics here is astove, the oldest animal in the zoo. he's 70 years old, weighs 273 kg and and has a shell of 1.2m! giant tortoises have a very long life span. the record holder is named harriet, who died at an estimated age of 176 years in an australian zoo in 2006. she was believed to have been captured on the galapagos island of ecuador in the mid-1830's. in the old days sailors captured giant tortoises by thousands, stored them on board their vessels and slaughtered them when needed. obedient and able to survive without food for long periods, giant tortoises became a convenient source of fresh meat on long voyages. the aldabra gained protection in the late 1880's and now there is a healthy population of about 150.000 giant tortoises. around the world, turtles and tortoises suffer from excessive egg collection, poaching, water pollution and habitat destruction.


hamadryas baboons, celebes crestes macaques, brown capuchins


lion-tailed macaques (the most endangered macaque today, only a few hundred remain in the wild), spider monkey (that thing hanging from her butt is not what you think, it's actually the female reproductive organ), cotton top tamarins (more than 75% of their habitat is destroyed)



some monkeys have been conditioned to free range within certain areas and if you pay attention and look up you will see them climbing around above you
proboscis monkeys!! these look so awesome. they live in the mangrove riverine forests of borneo. the monkeys have to travel up to look for food. their webbed feet enable them to swim well and to walk on mangrove mud without sinking. their enlarged stomachs contain bacterias which break down and deactivate the poisons in the leaves that they eat. they have to avoid fruit, since it causes a sudden build up of gas and acid which results in bloating and kills them. adults have a large drooping nose which is probably a beauty mark, drawing females to them. it helps resonate the males' loud vocalizations.


elephants! this was at the elephant show, where they explain how elephants work together. afterwords you could feed them, which was so cool!!



lions, white tigers and leopards

my favourite one: leopard cat. it's the most common wild cat in asia and may still occur in mainland singapore. it exists on pulau tekong, an island off the northeastern coast of singapore. in china it is called 'jing chien mao' or 'money cat' because its markings are said to look like old chinese coins. the leopard cat lives in tropical forests, pine forests, semi-deserts and crop plantations, and eates rodents, reptiles, birds, fish and occasionally grass.


rhinocerus iguana and two other uhm, lizardy creatures


meerkats, south african ground squirrels, otters


guanaco, couple of young greater kudus, some other type of antelope (these normally have two antlers, but i think that this one is a magical unicorn)


giraffes woohoo, and yes that is me feeding one :)


rhinos and zebras


this special creature here is called a tree nimph, also known as 'rice paper' a sit floats gently in the air. toxin derrived from leaves that the caterpillar feeds on makes it unpleasant to eat for predators.


i found this plant in the tropical garden. it's called 'nipple grinjal' also known as 'cow's udder' or 'titty fruit', because of its interesting shape. the choco indians used the fruit to poison cockroaches. the seeds are used to treat kidney and bladder problems.


a nice coloured bug, phasmatodea (walking stick), malayan horned frog (seen from the back, the pointy greenish things in the picture are on his head and that round black thing underneath it is his left eye...see it?)

mwuhahaha, spooky flying foxes, the largest bats with a wingspan of up to 2m

great white pelican, penguins and flamingos

only after the last tree has been cut down

only after the last river has been poisoned

only after the last fish has been caught

only then you will find that money cannot be eaten

(an old cree indian saying)