Beached As in Auckland

Travel is an amazing thing. It exposes us to new experiences, people, and aspects of ourselves that we don’t face at home. That being said, life on the road gets lonely.

That’s why it’s great to land with family and friends to soften the entry into a foreign country. Emma, Mick, Michelle, and Pete have been amazing.

Emma and her boyfriend, Mick cheerily picked Care and I up at the airport with almost no warning from us. My bad. We crashed at their pad, had an awesome home cooked meal, a kiwi BBQ and pool party, a guided tour of Auckland, and most importantly – they showed us the most New Zealand video in the world – “Beached As.” We use it to practice our accents.

Quick Travel Tip: Learn accents and phrases from popular movies, T.V. shows, and internet videos to blend in abroad. When you meet new people, parrot these phrases to show that you know everything about their culture.

After that, Pete and Michelle put us up for way too long at their beautiful home in Henderson – a suburb of Auckland notable for filming the Xena Warrior Princess series (I saw the lake from the title song and got pumped…Carolyn sighed).

They gave us advice for the van and travel in New Zealand, cooked great dinners, threw a nice happy hour, and showed us around town, including a trip to the championship midget and sprint car races. An American won, of course.

They even let us practice driving on the left side of the road. I only freaked out Michelle once.

Our trip would have had a pretty rough start without them; and we wouldn’t have such a great van –which I’ll talk about later.

They helped us “heaps bro”, but it was nice to connect with family and get a better sense of New Zealand. It’s nice to have someone looking out for us on the far side of the world.

If you were hoping for some information on Auckland that is actually helpful, check out my article on Helium.com - Auckland Travel Guide.

And click the photo below to view our Auckland Photo Album