Auckland and Some Last Minute Halloweening

                Today is Halloween in Auckland and Brian and I have decided that as we have not had a night out in the city, tonight was as good a night as any to give it a go. Problem is when you are living your life out of a backpack, you do not really have much in the way of on hand costumes. Being a fairly tight budget and having not much in the way of costume ideas, I set to the streets to join the crowds of other last minute Halloweeners and hopefully some inspiration.

                My first stop would be a dollar store that Brian and I had stumbled up on during one of previous explorations of Auckland.  The only idea that I come up with so far was to go as BoJack Horseman from the Netflix comedy series, as I figured all I would need is a horsehead. Having no luck finding a horse head mask that wasn’t rainbow, I was back to square one. As I weaved through the store, costumes and supplies littering the floor, I came to the bridesmaid/birthday girl section and was drawn back to a costume idea Brian had brought up last time we were in the store. I was going to go as one of those party girls that you typically see at the bachelorette parties. For the budget price of $15 and only a few weird looks, I was now the proud owner of pink stockings, a sash, a fluorescent pink cowboy hat, ‘PARTY’ glasses, and to top it all off a little pink tutu… SHOTS BITCHES!!

                Back at the hostel, Brian and enjoyed some cheap hostel beers while playing chess before we joined the rest of the hostel in costume. I think I wrote way back in the beginning of this blog when I was in Sydney that dressing up for Halloween in other parts of the world was different to back home in North America. Over here almost every costume includes fake blood, it doesn’t matter if you want to be the Lorax from Dr. Suess, you would be the Lorax who just got murdered by Thing One and Two and had was returning from the grave for revenge. So my costume was a little out of place.

                Having not gone out much over the last month and a half Brian and I were finding it difficult to get back into the unfamiliar environment of the bar scene. Shoulder to shoulder crowds of costumed backpackers drinking and dancing to deafening levels of music; we tried to fit and have a few drinks but when you’re spending $8 per beer and the last month that $8 has been able to potentially support an entire day’s worth of food you find it hard to get in to the mindset. So with no words and only glance, Brian and I left the bar at just past midnight in search of a snack and some breathing room.

                We were meant to awake early the this morning to watch the All Blacks compete in the final of the rugby world cup but with the city alive as it was all night we decided to stay in bed. Thinking back on it now, I’m sure we would have achieved the same amount of sleep had we gone out and watched the game as we got laying in our beds. There was a brief period between two thirty and three where the city seemed to settle and quiet down. Though just as we had fallen asleep the city made its resurgence and was alive again. This time not with the drunken cries of costumed hooligans but instead the cheers of drunken rugby hooligans, so pretty much the same thing. As the game went on, so did the cheers now accompanied with honks of passing cars. The game seemed to go on forever as I tossed and turned in my bed eagerly awaiting the gentle embrace of sleep, finally amiss all the celebratory cheers and honks sleep found me.

                The next morning we awoke to a city much like the one we found when we first arrived. The streets seemed oddly empty save for the odd sexily dressed nurse wandering home on the always enjoyable to watch post Halloween walk of shame. A couple of friends we had met at the start of our NZ adventure were in town for the game that morning so we decided to meet up with them later that evening for our last night in Auckland. We decided to try and grab some coffee but as most cafes had shut their doors for the big game that morning we were forced to an awesome little craft beer bar for a sampler and some catch up. Well we drank our various beers of the thirty some odd they had on tap we exchanged stories of the places we had visited on our trips up this breathtaking nation. After I finished my Unicorn Piss, one of the beers I had in my sampler, we decided that we were all fairly weary from the night before and it was time to turn in. After all I had a big day of travelling to do tomorrow.