Auckland, New Zealand is a strange place. On the surface it appears as though it may have some New York City quality to it, maybe a touch of London, a pinch of Seattle.But after a few months of living here and settling into a groove of the city centre I have found that Auckland really is like no other place I have ever been.First of all, it is not pretty.I will just put that out there.It does not have the ageless beauty of Paris or Amersterdam where even the gas stations are works of art, no, Auckland has a gritty feel that is intertwined with drop dead gorgeous parks and little tiny pockets of beauty, but overall, it is a city.

Well, to be honest, "pretty" is not a word I would use to describe most cities anyway.The main streets of Auckland are crowded and too wide to be "pretty", but the small little side streets that jump out of nowhere and are marked with older buildings posses a majestic quality.These little streets, that don't "wind" anywhere, but do have a directionless quality to them anyway, are much more impressive than the overall city.

Every once and a while I like to just go and wander in the middle of the city in the middle of the day.The flow of people is astounding to look at, people from everywhere, going nowhere.My favourite part of the city is where there are three book stores almost in a row, almost like they are Starbucks.I like to wander around one and then go explore the others.I only recently got a library card to the city library and now I wander around there.It is a beautiful library with three floors and a cafe attached to the bottom level; my kind of library.Across the street from it is an old theatre that I never would have noticed were it not for the library.I saw it out of the second story window, across the alleyway that is the only street that runs by the theatre.It is old and abandoned, but somehow that makes it even more enticing.There are endless construction projects all over the city, but I don't think they will ever fix up that theatre.

I only discovered a little street that has at least five little tea shops with wooden door frames and menus written on chalkboards.I love those tea shops.A cup of tea tastes better when you order it from a smudged list of items on a blackboard that was written over and over again.The pathway between the tea stores is paved with old cobblestones, and it really feels like a different city, away from the futuristic architecture of Sky Tower, or the towering bank buildings. It becomes one of those little towns with little cafes and a quaint little library.

On top of it all is the fact that despite the fact that it is almost November, it is SPRING.My mind wants to tell me that it is getting colder and that I can expect it to start snowing soon and should start bringing sweaters along, but I step outside and the air has that fresh, crispness to it that is only present during spring time.It has really only just occurred to me that I have seemingly cut summer out of my life for the next year.I left the States before it really started going, and will return from New Zealand just after it starts here and come back again just in time for fall.It is interesting how travelling these past 6 months has messed with my sense of time and seasons. It seems like I just got here, but in less than 6 weeks I am going to be returning to the life that is all the way across the world and a day behind where I am right now.Crazy.