While I could stay in Australia forever and ever, it was time to finish our tour in Auckland, New Zealand. I’m going to sound like a spoiled brat, but I’m telling you this for future reference. If you decide to go to New Zealand, make the south island a priority. I think it is prettier, greener, and most of it has all the “fun stuff” that everyone talks about. Skydiving, white water rafting, Milford Sound, you get the picture. The south island is where everything is at. I especially love Queenstown, I can’t wait to go back there. There’s a reason why they call it the “adventure capital” of the world.
Auckland is the one of New Zealand’s biggest urban cities. It’s also known for its skyline and all the other cool islands around it. Other than that, I can’t say that much about Auckland. To me it’s another big city, but all the surrounding islands and landscapes around it is pretty cool. You can drive two hours to see where they filmed Lord of the Rings, there’s also all of these cool mud hot springs, but also great wine and wildlife in the area. There are tons of boat tours and tons of scenery to see outside the city.
Luckily, I’m a chatterbox, and I was told by a handful of locals to go to Waiheke Island, basically not known for much except for sights, food, and lots of wine. It was just starting to get into the summer, so not too many people were on the beaches. But it’s better than the weather that I’m currently experiencing in Nashville. I would totally go back early in the morning because it would be a good day trip… to drink wine and eat food.
I was under the weather and due to high restrictions still in place in New Zealand, I was not allowed in the venue. I think the show went well, but I was working from my hotel room. Overall, the run down under went fairly smoothly with some bumps and hiccups in the road.
I’ll be completely honest, touring down under is hard and arduous. There are no tour buses and you are dealing with a big island that’s the size of the US. If you don’t plan accordingly, you’ll be going up and down left and right, flying all around til you get to the show. You’ll get crowds in Australia, but you won’t get the sleep on show days.
It was a great learning experience. It taught me more about traveling, traveling fast-paced in a large country, but most importantly about me. It taught me a lot about my patience, my value, and my worth. But more importantly, I like to think I’m pretty good at my job. It’s very easy in this industry to get lost in what you do, to get lost in the sea of people, but just stand up for yourself and just do your job well.
Easier said than done.
The Thein Way to Live 