Auckland and Wellington (World Tour, Stops 4 & 5)

Auckland was so-so, a generic big city without much character. Partied with Cirque de Soleil roadies and some British Airways stewardesses in a backpacker bar which closely resembled a frat party. Met two nice but strange looking Chinese girls at the bar, and one of the roadies swore they were Thai she-men.

Wellington is awesome. The city has a young and hip feel, and a lot of cool modern artsy statues and indie theater and music. There's a cable car/funicular and a great interactive museum with exhibits about nature, wildlife, NZ culture, history, and art. It has a lot of similarities to Pittsburgh, come to think of it, except there's much better weather and no slums.

I met a software engineer from San Francisco at the museum. He was wearing a black t-shirt with the equation for calculating motorcycle horsepower written on it. He rented a motorcycle a month ago here and has been traveling all over the country on it- over 4,000 km. Needless to say, I'm jealous.

I'm meeting a lot of people, but it's the same conversation every time- where you're from, how long you're traveling for, where you've been/where you're going, what you do back home. It's sort of like college orientation, except you know you're probably not going to see any of these people ever again.