Here, There & Everywhere: November 2009

A couple weekends ago I flew up to the Northern part of the North Island to Auckland, New Zealand's largest city. My friend Claire from Nashville was living up there for a little while so it was the perfect excuse to get away and visit her and the big, bad Oakland...(as they pronounce it).

I almost moved there. Like, had everything arranged, mind made up, it's a done deal almost moved there. Then about 3 weeks out I completely changed my mind and decided to move to Wellington instead. So when I visited Auckland I kept thinking about how different life over here would be had I not flipped the coin at the last minute and stayed with my original plan to live in this city. I haven't spent enough time there to give you an accurate portrayal of the city, but my first impression and experience was quite different from what I had imagined. It's BIG and sprawling. To give you a picture, the population is similar to that of Nashville at around 1.4 million but the amount of land mass it takes up is similar to Los Angeles with 3x the amount of people. So you have a lot of city/suburbs and relatively speaking, not a lot of people. Looking at a map you would never think this tiny country could have a city large enough to have to deal with "LA" style rush hour traffic and 30, 40, 50 minute train rides out to suburb areas. Compared to Wellington's 'walkability' and lack of extended commuting time it is quite different! Overall though, I had a wonderful time with Claire & also had a chance to meet a new friend, Kieran, who I got in touch with through a friend in Nashville. :) Rach