A Bit About Auckland

I made some great new friends! My first afternoon in Auckland, I met an Aussie named Brent, also attending the conference, who I then enjoyed the greater part of the next 5 days with. We also quickly made friends with another Australian named Irini. I met many other wonderful people, but these two (also both writers!) are definitely the best friends I made. In general, I was a bit of a novelty to people, being only a Master's student and having come from Alaska. It made for easy conversation starters, besides the usual, "What is your research on?"


The conference was great. There were a lot of interesting sessions to go to, on all different topics, and I thoroughly exhausted my mind every day. The conference attracted people from many disciplines, and the atmosphere was also really great ("cruisie," Brent liked to say). Everyone was friendly and encouraging, so by the time I had to present, I felt like I was talking to a room full of friends, rather than a bunch of intimidating strangers.

In the evenings, Brent, Irini and I grabbed dinner together, near the harbor or in Auckland's busy downtown and then chilled out for awhile longer before bed. Tuesday night was the conference banquet, which I had forgotten to pay for, and which they insisted on sneaking me into (the way it was run, I think I ate off of everyone else's tickets). I can't say we did anything too original in Auckland -- watched a movie, read each other's writing, took a ferry to a suburb -- but I thought Auckland was just lovely, and it was spending time with new friends that was the most enjoyable part for me.

After the conference was over, with my new friends headed back to their respective homes, I did some more exploring. I took a ferry over to Waiheke island, where I enjoyed wandering through the bush, wading along the beach, and just generally relaxing. Saturday before my flight, I went to the Auckland Museum and finally learned something about New Zealand. The museum has a cultural performance, which I went to, and the Maori songs and dances that they performed were quite beautiful.

Fairbanks greeted me back with -36 degrees, and now I'm just trying to get back into the swing of things.