What did I ever do to New Zealand?!?

I'm pretty sure that New Zealand hates me. I am here at the beginning of their summertime, what should be day after day of temps in the mid-70s and bright blue, sunny skies. But since I arrived, other than a few hours on our first day in Auckland, it has been nothing but grey, bleak and rainy. Wait, I take that back. Today there were approximately 7 minutes of sun while I was sitting outside. You would think I'm exaggerating, but I'm not.

Since we had had pretty bad luck since arriving (weather, car accident... both of which resulted in lots of lost time), I decided to spend some extra days in New Zealand, to give it a chance to redeem itself. I have heard such amazing things about NZ for so many years, that I felt like I had missed out on a lot and it would be a shame to leave having experienced so little. Also, since it is about as far away as you can get from home and it is SO expensive to get here and therefore quite unlikely that I will be back, I figured I should see as much of it as possible while I'm here. Better to spend a few extra dollars to stay another few days than to eventually have to spend thousands to get back here, right? Now I'm not so sure.

Had I stayed and had the weather been nice (I would even take semi-nice at this point... even marginally decent would be something), I would definitely have felt I made the right decision. As it stands, having now spent the extra money to stay longer and STILL not being able to see anything, I am seriously regretting my decision. I could have been stuck inside due to miserable weather at home for free!

Sarah left yesterday morning as planned for Sydney. She turned 30 today and wanted to stick with her original plan to spend it with her good friend there. So I hopped a ferry on my own yesterday to Waiheke Island, about 35 minutes off of Auckland. I figured I would spend two days lounging on the beach and enjoying some rays. Well, at least I got to walk on the beach. Once.

It rained on the ferry over here. It rained all evening last night. It was raining when I woke up this morning. And it continued to rain for most of the afternoon. Grrr.

Since I was on my own, and since I am SO over hostel life, I decided to "splurge" and get a room on my own. No having to keep all my stuff in a neat little pile so it doesn't get in other people's way, no having to make nice chitchat if I don't want to (and lately I don't want to), no not being able to stay up and read as late as I want because others want the light off, no having to grope my way around in the dark so I don't disturb others, no having to lug my stuff back and forth to the bathroom every time I take a shower.... you get the idea. I found a single room in a place that described itself online as being on the sea with wifi, a restaurant and a little store on the premises. As I was informed by the lady at the hotel way back in Amsterdam, "Sometimes people lie on hotel websites".

I got here to find out that the place does in fact overlook the sea... from a distance. To actually get to the sea, you have to walk down a mountain, a walk that also includes precisely 187 steps. My 'single' room is a tiny dorm room with bunk beds, they just won't rent the other bunk out while I'm here. The wifi is charged hourly at an obscene rate and doesn't really work anyhow. The 'restaurant' is in the communal kitchen where they offer a pre-determined dinner (but only during the week) that you can sign up for the day before. The 'store' is, no lie, a shelf in the reception area that has like five items, things like canned beans and ramen noodles. When I asked the guy if there were any restaurants around, he said, and I quote "Sure, loads." and proceeded to point out exactly two on the map, both a half hour walk from here. All visions I had of myself in a lovely little room in a seaside cottage, being self contained and able to eat my meals here in between jaunts to the beach quickly evaporated. Instead I found myself on the top of a mountain with NOTHING around, no book (I left it in Auckland by mistake), no TV (doesn't work), no wifi (doesn't work), no beach (raining) and no food without walking a half hour. Sigh.

If it sounds like I'm grumpy, I am. I think I may have finally pushed my luck too far, in trying to extend just once more. I should have just gone to Sydney with Sarah as planned. But I made my decision and all I can do now is try to make the best of it. I have a few more days here so I'm still optimistic that my time in New Zealand can be redeemed. Tomorrow is another day... and fingers crossed there may even be, dare I dream, TEN minutes of sun!

Oh, and the first picture is one I got online of what Waiheke Island SHOULD look like at this time of year. All the rest are what it actually DID look like.