From Auckland to Wellington

I woke up and checked my watch. I was late for my bus!

And then I woke up. Silly me, it was still four in the morning. Plenty of time to sleep and catch the bus later. So much so that when my alarm started going off I ignored it, and turned back to sleep.

I woke up and checked my watch. I was late for my bus!

This time it was no lie. The dream knew. The dream knew!

This time I found myself throwing the few things still outside my pack into it, grabbing my gear, hoping I had everything, and racing up the stairs. I grabbed my shoes, threw my keys through the hole in the office door, and then rushed up to the top of the street, getting there just as the LinkBus (to take me to my inter-city bus) was pulling into the stop. Rushing across the road, I hopped on board, and with a huge sigh of relief sunk into the cushioned seat.

For the next ten minutes I travelled without fear down to the city centre. Getting off there, I grabbed a drink from the corner store, and continued to make my way to the main stop. Having caught that bus out of luck, I now had some spare time on my hands, and when I got to the right spot, I was able to kick back and relax for ten/twenty minutes as the others made their way down.

By eight o'clock we were all on board, and I had myself a sweet seat right at the front to look out the left window, and look out the front. First order of business? Fall asleep.

There's not much to see leaving the city and if I was going to use any time to catch up on much needed Zs this would be it. And then there was some reading. And then we were out on the road.

The New Zealand south island played out in front of me: rolling grassy hills, often times rocky cliffs leading down to vast waters, and sheep. Sheep everywhere.

The landscapes were beautiful, even if only seen through the window, but I was disapointed finding myself thinking – well, it's a little like the Scottish Highlands, and it's a little like Ontario. I wanted to see this as New Zealand, and New Zealand only, but it seems as if that had been taken from me.

We made one stop letting people off, picking people up. And I was not guarding my territory enough. For the next hour, until the new passenger got off, I was crushed, and cramped in my seat – too uncomfortable to rest, not enough leg space to stretch out enough to read. It was not a fun hour. But it did allow me to pay attention as we made our ways winding along the coastline. And that was something spectacular. If only one could stop the bus, get out, take some pictures.

But we were on a mission – Wellington or bust. Only one time to stop, and that was in Rotorua. Stepping off the bus for our lunch stop I was assaulted by the heavy scent of sulpher. The thermal pools lead to making the city smell the way it does, but they have embraced it, in a sense. Their local paper is called “Thermal Air.” They know they can't hide it – why not be proud of it? I wonder how the air smells to people when they leave this town, after living here? And then how would the thermal air smell upon their return?

Lunch was an overpriced sandwich, but a good one. And some carrot cake. And a meat pie. Meat pies are important, I've been told time and time again, and to have not had one would have been such a shame. Strangely enough, they actually tasted pretty good too.

A few more hours on the bus, between reading (A Spot of Bother – did not like it when I gave it a first shot, but now? Not too bad.) and sleeping and I was rolling up to the main train station stop in Wellington.

Getting off the bus, and grabbing my gear, I was met by the lovely Angie (http://kickchick74.blogspot.com/) who showed me around the main streets and pointed out one of Wellington's most delightful sights, the Cuba Street water sculpture. Buckets of water get filled, they splash down into other buckets, those buckets spill. Sometime the buckets splash onto the street, but mostly – and delightfully – they splash onto the drunk people wandering by, trying to reach over and grab it. Nothing like a place where the people are trashed by 9:00pm. It's like the anti-Iceland.

Food was had at Burger King, where there's a deal called “the steal.” It's a cheeseburger covered in mayo with small fries for two fifty. This is one of the cheapest things you can grab here in NZ, as food? Pretty pricey.

But – fun fact – the reason it's covered in mayo? Because these burgers are not flame broiled as much as they WERE flame broiled, and are now microwaved. Hey – seems like a cost effective way to clear the unused patties.

After some food, and some wandering, we headed back home and I was told of the many wonderful things that Wellington has to offer. Tomorrow? The museum.

Auckland - it's not so big. And LOST? Disappointing.

So, I kinda-sorta already saw the city. Who needs to see it again, yeah?

When I first woke up I resumed my quest to watch Lost, grabbing ten more minutes of it over the course of an hour, before finding a fast stable site. Then – it was just a matter of watching the hour and a half of episode to finish off the series. I was – disappointed – by the end, to say the least.

I summed up my thoughts elsewhere, and don't feel the need to get into the angst again. But needless to say, they Battlestar Gallacticaed me, and failed to realize that if your show has a metaphor for god, you need not put God in it.

When I finally emerged from my den I walked outside and saw the most beautiful rainbow I'd seen in ages. It was simply glowing in the sky. Above it was a second rainbow. The bows cut a swath through the sky separating light from dark. I'd never seen anything like it. And by the time I had my camera out, the second rainbow was gone, with the first fading fast. Snapping off a few shots, the image was nothing like it could have been. Still – I'd seen it and that was what mattered.

Making my way up the street on this beautiful day I decided to stop in, one more, at Burgerfuel. Actually grab a burger this time – ground beef and all.

This time a limo malt drew me in, rather than the banana from the day before. And the burger? The best money could buy. $15.00NZD all on it's own. It was... alright. It was pretty good. But it was no MattyP special. They never are.

Leaving the shop I had all intentions to walk down to the bargain bookstore on Queen, but that was – of course – when the sky decided to open. Did I want to walk in the rain to see books that I knew I wouldn't buy? I did not.

Back to the hostel. Back to my room. Don't judge me.

I opened up a word file, I opened up a browser with the map of America, and I opened up Katherine's USA file. I then removed them items from alpha order, and put them in circular order I traced a circle clockwise around America, starting from Buffalo, ending with Chicago. States in the middle? They were discarded, sadly.

With that done, I was ready to begin. Another word file open, and Katherine's file traded for a browser with google maps in it. The tool of every great travel plan.

For three hours I copied, I pasted, I web browsed. But by the end of it I had a rough draft of the two month trip, where we'd spend nights, and the distance / time required to transition from point to point.

All in all, a productive use of time. And when it was done my newly met Californian was back from her day on a boat in the harbour, and more chatting, and learning of American hotspots was to be done.

But the night ended early for me, as I had a twelve hour bus from Auckland to Wellington to catch early in the morning.

You know what? As I have little else to get into here – I will recap my feelings on the end of Lost. Spoilers ahead folks.

The ending of lost - when everyone went through the door, in theory, and we were supposed to think that they all came together. Well here is why that is complete and utter horse hockey.

First you need to buy into what I'm saying about the flash stuff - it was not them all in the afterlife, but rather it was all in jacks head. Geekbox (a lovely podcast I've been following while away) also discussed this, and I was like, "that's what I said!" but no one went with it - yet it's so obvious and the only option. Why?

Because we are told that everyone was awakened like in the matrix, or more realistically the beginning of sailor moon season 2. Now the ones who are awakened are the ones who, in theory, spent the best years of their life on the island and that's why they're all together. And they built this communal place.

OK as if that makes sense. If that was true, than the dude who did science, and also cousin Iggy from super mario, and - everyone - would be there because they wanted to be there, and they wanted to move on. But "Desmond" does not wake them up to have them move on.

Is he just a jerk? No. Because Desmond is not real. He is a construct of Jack's mind, just like everyone else.

It's important to realize that anyone in that death world could be a false person. Jack has created fake beings in this world. His son. Why would the only person to have a fake person be jack? Because he is creating the world - a sort of wish fulfillment. The world is the city he knows best, LA. Jack gets to save Locke, and Jack gets this son, and Jack's father is moving on with the lost crew.

I'm sorry, what? We're supposed to believe that Jack's father spent his best days on the island with all those people? Dude was dead before any of that happened.

Now why was Desmond the person waking everyone? Again - he was the "helper construct" which is how Jack would have always seen him - helping to push the button, and helping 'til the end to try and make things right.

All the people in flash sideways were the way Jack thought of them as being - and at the age jack knew them as. Sun's baby and Aaron were young. Rose and Bernard were young, though we saw them as older, jack did not. Sayid was a bad ass, but with a good heart, kate was innocent. Sawyer was justice.

All these sideways people were not the people we knew from their flashbacks, but rather could have been how Jack imagined them from the few years he knew them. That's why the personalities were different.

The idea that Aaron would move on with them - that he spent the best years of his life with those people is ridiculous. Surely he grew up and made friends.

And Hugo? I could see him accepting those as the best years of his life - but he lived for thousands, we assume.

No, instead, I believe Jack is picking and choosing the people he cares about and bringing them along. Which is why Kate loves him. Something she never really did during the course of the show. But now in his world he can make her be with him.

Note, the flash to death land start the second after Jack dies. The plane flies over head, he closes his eyes, he's on the plane.

This is his death. He has created this fictional world, this "life flashing before his eyes" to help him let go and transition. But nothing in this flash world has anything to do with the rest of the characters - most of whom died on this island for nothing, because Jacob is an asshole with mommy issues.

Further more, I think the smoke monster guy was a good thing. He wanted to sink the island. Great. What good ever came out of the island, aside from people dying?

Now never mind that they travelled through time, or the island moved, or all that other crazy stuff. I just want to focus on how I think the end played out, and that's that. To accommodate all the other crap I have this theory (which doesn't really work in the spirit of the show, but allows me to tie everything together and would solve all problems.)

Jack is not a doctor in real life, instead he is a dreamer, an author, a writer. When he opens his eye at the beginning of the first episode he is really going to sleep. (reverse in this world) these are his creations. His characters. And as he lives through the story, he sees the flash backs, fleshing out his creations.

It is not until his real life death - which may be many years, or at the same time, as his dream death. These fictional characters have taken on such a large part of his life that when he dies these are the things that matter to him. He is picking and choosing those who meant most, while finding roles for everyone. At the end, keeping up with the theme of bad fatherhood, he chooses the fictional characters over his own son.

In this reading, his son is the only real face, but when his creations tell him the son isn't real, he casts him off and moves peacefully to his death.

As for all the things unexplained, or plots that changed, or were dropped - in dreams things come and go and we accept them. This is how dreams work, and they are not questioned. Just appreciated as part of a tapestry that allows us to view the larger issues.

Now - I'm not saying this is what the creators had in mind, but it's the only way to make sense of the show, for me, and if I look at it any other way, the finale was terrible, made little sense, and was just a painful way to wrap up what could have been a fantastic experience. Looking at it otherwise, as a "real death world" where they are all together? It doesn't make sense. Everyone from the history of time would be there. Everyone who was ever on the island (why would the japanese guy choose to bring himself and his maybe-real son there?) would be there throughout the history of time.

And also - why would the island even be there? Underwater?

Jack could have put it there as, when he died, it seemed the island might be sinking.

One could imagine Tolkien being this attached to his characters.

Not to say I hated the show, because I didn't. I watched it for six years, putting in a lot of effort to watch season 6 as I've been traveling the world this year watching each episode in a different country - but I just think the ending? It was far too simple and obvious (most people predicted it from the very begging) and a missed opportunity for something so much more. Were the flash sideways world anything but purgatory, even if poorly explained, the show would have had a much stronger impact.

In a show that deals with the metaphor of religion and god, putting in God? It's not necessary.

Auckland – what can I tell you about Auckland? It has a bad they keep at minus five?

I know this because I saw it in an informational video on the plane. I didn't go to the bar. Thought about it – but the twenty five dollar cover charge seemed like a lot of money. I'd soon learn everything costs twenty five dollars in this country – but at the time, it seemed like quite a lot.

It was an interesting looking bar though, from the video – everyone wears jackets, and the glasses are made of ice. Still – twenty five dollars to get in? A five dollar charge rubs me the wrong way.

But, Auckland. When I finally got up around noon, I made my way to the office to pay, and get some information. I then headed to the Link bus which would take me into town (not that it was needed for the twenty minute walk, but when I went to catch my bus to Wellington in a few days, I wanted to know the route.)

In town I found myself at the harbour thinking, huh – a harbour, and then off I went walking to the sky tower. It's the tallest building in the Souther Hemisphere you understand. You'd think a country like South Africa would try to give them what for, but no, people seem content to let Auckland keep this prize. Maybe out of pity. They all got together one day to talk, and came to the decision that without this tower, they'd have nothing and it would just be too cruel.

I imagine Sydney was halfhearted with its conclusion though, and immediately set ot to plan the downfall of this poor little tower.

When I saw the sky tower, I looked at my map – I'd walk through the park and past the museum on my way back, but for now? This was it. This was the city of Auckland. I'd just walked through it all.

I'd seen the streets, seen the buildings. I went, as has become my norm, to a bookstore. I looked at a few but then decided that someone needs to tell this part of the world that their books are far too expensive. Sixteen dollars Canadian is not ok for a book that would cost nine back home. Are there no publishers here? When digital books reach their full mainstream potential, these shops will have none to blame but themselves for failing. No one will pay sixteen when they can buy it for much less over the internet. And let us not even discuss how pirating will play into all this.

Sure there are shipping costs and all that, but no – this is just beyond reasonable. You could buy a video game for the price of a book or two.

One of their discount books, back home it would discount for 20 bucks, was “only 60 dollars!” Sure in real money that's forty eight dollars – but still. New Zealand, I would like to know your literacy rate. Despite this it's probably quite high. I just can't see many people reading for pleasure at these prices.

Although, I guess there are things called libraries. I hear they're neat. Like video rental stores – but for books – and strangely, for free. Perhaps I”ll look into them in the future. Great idea them, must be new, otherwise everyone'd be using them, yeah?

Wandering the park, and grabbing a kebab (lamb deliciousness – which I'd had so many of in Germany) I was ready to head back. You know, as kebabs are such a staple here I'd expected more from them. But no. The meat I had? Not even cut fresh. They had the fresh thing hanging there, but what I had was cold and pre-shaved. The whole thing was grilled afterwards to heat it up. And the yogurt and chili sauce? Barely there.

I don't know if Dresden led me to expect too much, or if these are just not so hot. M'eh.

Back to the hostel I went. Three hours of exploring, and Auckland had been conquered.

For the next little while I tried, and failed, to watch Lost. I got about twenty minutes, over a viewing time of a couple of hours. I know – terrible. Eventually I gave up and headed upstairs when a guy sharing my room mentioned that the best burgers in all the world were here in Auckland. In fact they were the reason he was spending his one night in this town – the burger shop was at the top of the street. A chain in the North Island, it was called Burger Fuel. I was willing to check that out.

Just a moment, he said, he had to make a call. This call went on and on, and while waiting I struck up conversation, or had conversation struck up – a conversation began with a girl from California. Which led to all number of hours sitting on the porch, watching the rain fall down in heavy sheets – a novelty for people from that part of America, you see – and chatting. It has been a while since I had a good chat with a hosteler. And as the common room in this place was full of creepy silent folks all on their own laptops, I was delighted by it.

At some point we headed out to Burgerfuel for our 15.00NZD combos. I had a malt milkshake at last. I don't understand the point of the malt, but never mind that.

The burger? It was a chicken sandwich. I didn't read enough. But it was a damn fine one, and I'd say worth the price I paid. Having to pay extra for mayo was a little silly – for the fries, you see. As luck would have it though, they were delicious on their own and required no such toppings.

My upcoming road trip around the states was discussed, and I was given all number of pointers and tips and ideas. Eventually I'll have to think some more about where I want to go. Katherine had emailed me a list of places she wanted to see, with a lot of the legwork done. It worries me that I'll need to really go through that at some point – because USA? It's a big country.

Back in the hostel, near the common room I stared at the map of America, and ideas started to form as invisible routes were plotted. But now was not the time. I was tired, and my conversation partner had moved off to sleep – or some such thing. And now it was time I too crashed. Tomorrow. There'd be a new day, yeah?