Goodbye Tassie--Kia Ora New Zealand

Day 7—hobart Day 1- Auckland
My second night in my Hobart hostel I was in a room with three guys—quite different from what I had initially planned—to be in a room with only girls—but as my mind constantly thinks of ways to do things cheaper I didn’t even think about my initial concern of being a girl traveling alone. Oh well it turned out fine—the people in the Hobart Hostel are pretty quiet and laid back—I didn’t feel unsafe at all. They probably wanted to shoot me though because I went to bed late and woke up before them. I had to catch a bus to the airport at 9AM so I got up at like 730. It’s funny I think how I am now on vacation and every day I am getting up earlier than I did during my semester. Anyway it took nearly an hour to get to the airport because we had to stop and get other people. Finally got there and checked in—the guy checked me in all the way to Hobart. I tried to switch my meals to vegetarian but I guess it was too late. In the airport I talked to Sameer who loaded me up on minutes for my phone—thank god. 10:20 boarded the plan and was on my way in no time to Sydney. In Sydney I was a little hectic—I had to figure out how to get to the international airport and I also had to go through all these security things for going international. It was a lot more work than I thought—and I totally forgot about the liquid rule so I had to sort through my stuff. Finally I got through and went to my gate—I thought I was going to be late but it turned out our plane had an hour long delay. While waiting I found a spot to recharge my phone. Again talked to Sameer and Rhona and Miranda before departing. Also while waiting I met this guy who was also traveling to Auckland. He asked me to watch his stuff while he went to the bathroom—I was on the phone and didn’t realize what he was asking till he was already up and moving. Oh well, seemed harmless until he took forever to come back. Finally he did and he had with him two apple juices—one of which he gave to me. I was a bit uneasy about all this, and as a bad stereotype he was also from Ethiopia. Then he started up a conversation with me and asked me about my travels and what not—I returned the questions. He offered me a ride once in Auckland to the city and my hostel. I agreed(with a huge frog in my throat) thinking oh gosh I’m going to be kidnapped. But I said yes because I had heard so much about Kiwi hospitality and figured hey lets test this out. I also figured in the Auckland airport I could probably just lose myself. He ended up being a really nice person though—he offered me a seat switch because there was extra room near him on the plane—I stayed in my seat because I was still a bit uneasy—and also there was a lot of extra leg room (exit seat). When we landed he told me just to wait for him after we got through all the customs stuff, he also helped me sort out what food and stuff I had to throw away in order to get into the country (I think I probably could have kept the food because you can declare it—but whatever) –I realized this guy was safe and waited for him outside. I should mention that I had to go into the biohazard line in customs so they could check my hiking boots and my seashells—safe and I got to keep both haha. Finally the guy came out and he introduced me to his mate who was also from Ethiopia and we proceeded to go to the parking lot. They were talking in their own language, but had some really good music on as we drove off to the city. Yup they dropped me off no problem—it was really really nice of them—especially because the friend had already had to wait for us for an extra hour and he was still laid back and helpful. They offered any more help to me the rest of the week. And that was it—I made it to Nomad Fusion Backpackers—free of charge. Thank you Kiwis!
My hostel was loud and not really inviting on first entering—and my room was an 8 person female with some pretty unfriendly English/sweds. Luckily I was only there one night and didn’t have to carry on the awkwardness for much longer. I had a nice warm shower and went to bed straight away. The switch from Oz to Kiwi land is a 2 hour time difference so even though it felt like 9 PM it was actually 11PM—something I didn’t realize until my roommates were getting up at 4AM to catch their plane. At this point I was like what the hell its 4AM why are they up?! Then I realized it was actually 6AM and that I had to get up shortly too. So actually thank you damn sweds! Got up packed my stuff and was out the door by 715AM. I took a short walk to find some brekky and get out some cash. The store the receptionist had recommended was insanely expensive—I wasn’t sure if this was representative of all Kiwi prices so I bought the least expensive breakfast thing—5.79 for a box of cereal. Nuts!! It was a good thing cause later I found many more stores with reasonable prices.