Upon arrival in Auckland immigration detained me for two hours. I was told my presence was of some concern , so they interrogated me and thoroughly searched my belongings. I have gone places, but i never experienced something like this before. Flying down under only to be treated as an miserable crook- ridiculous and let me put it straight right here: Never in my life i cared about drugs and touched a fuckin' joint !!! A fellow traveller didn't declare an forgotten apple in the luggage and had to reach in his pocket to dish out 400 NZ$, a little less than 400 US$. I eventually left the airport and stood in heavy rain. Weather rarely got much better after that. NZ is a expensive country for low-budget travellers, for starters a pack of ciggies sells around 20 NZ$, and that brings me to the next bugger - I moved in a backpacker hostels dorm. Socializing with people half my age and the smell of some deodorants is nothing i appreciate. Regular New Zealandians treated me very nice, albeit the majority of the Maoris seem to be natural born bouncers. Auckland is a slick city, surrounded by water with a subtropical feel. However the downtown area has to be avoided on a saturday night when the youth goes completely bonkers. The beer is excellent ( "Mac's Hop Rocker") and drinking a pint at 6.45 in the morning watching the Champions-League final was a highlight. I marked off the usual touristic attractions and also ventured out to the countryside. I can confirm, all very beautiful. Heading back home i handed over my passport at immigrations to a grumpy woman and all of a sudden red alert was triggered. She jumped out of her booth and ordered me in a rude manner to come with her to a room, where it all happened again. When i finally got off the hook i sprinted to the gate to catch my flight. Luckily i am still in good shape and EMIRATES airlines were waiting for me. My thanks go out to them - fantastic airline. So all-in-all was it worth it ? For personal reasons yes, for the country itself no. Drinking beer in a wooden shack in a so called third world country is more to my liking.
