The boxes arrived yesterday afternoon, flat-packed and smelling faintly of cardboard and warehouse dust. I've been circling them all morning, the way you circle a task you know will take longer than you hope. There's something about packing that forces you to reckon with what you've actually accumulated — and for someone who landed with two suitcases and a backpack, the accumulation is almost embarrassing. A month of groceries, a stack of library books, a coat hanger that came with the flat and somehow became mine. I made tea, sat on the floor, and started.
The flat itself is small — one bedroom, a kitchen that opens onto the living room, a window that looks out onto the street. The rent is about four hundred and eighty dollars a week, which feels steep until you remember you're paying for Ponsonby and the convenience of everything. Two supermarkets within walking distance, a bus stop at the end of the block, the Saturday market just down the road in Grey Lynn. I've been here barely a week and I already know which way the morning light falls across the kitchen floor, and how the neighbour's cat appears at the window around three every afternoon, wanting in or wanting out — I can never tell.
I packed my clothes first, because they're easy, and because it made me feel productive without having to make any real decisions. Everything else required a kind of attention I wasn't ready to give at eight in the morning. So I did what I've been doing most days since I landed: I put on my jacket, grabbed my keys, and went out for coffee. It's the last full day in Auckland before I point the car south, and I wanted to spend part of it the way I've spent most of my mornings here — walking, watching, letting the city reveal itself at its own pace.
The coffee was at Maeve, the little roastery on Mackelvie Street, and it cost about six dollars for a flat white that I drank standing at the window, watching the street wake up around me. Winter in Auckland is a strange thing — cold in a way that gets into your bones if you stand still too long, but with a light that feels almost generous. The sun doesn't climb high, but when it breaks through the cloud, it turns everything a pale, honeyed gold. The kind of light that makes you forgive the damp. I stood there longer than I needed to, letting the cup warm my hands, and thought about how quickly a place starts to feel like yours.
After Maeve, I walked down to the Viaduct. Not for any particular reason — I'd saved the harbour for a future season, for when I come back with more time and a proper plan. But it was my last day, and I wanted to stand at the edge of the water at least once. The Viaduct in winter is quieter than I expected. The yachts are still there, their masts clinking softly in the wind, but the summer crowds are gone. A few people walked past with takeaway coffees and dogs on leads. A couple sat on a bench, sharing what looked like a bag of chips from the fish market — I could smell it from where I stood, that salt-and-vinegar tang that somehow always finds you. I didn't stay long. Just long enough to feel the harbour air on my face, to watch the ferries cut across the grey water toward Devonport and Waiheke, to remind myself that all of that is still ahead.
I came home and packed the kitchen. That was the real reckoning. I'd bought a startling amount of food in five days — rice, olive oil, a jar of honey from the Grey Lynn market, half a cabbage that had gone soft in the fridge. The cabbage I composted, which felt like a small victory. The rest I packed into a cardboard box and labelled 'kitchen — do not crush'. As if anyone would be crushing boxes. As if I'm not the only person who's going to lift them into the car tomorrow.
Lunch was a quiet affair at Amano, a big open room on Britomart Place with a counter full of pastries and a menu that made me wish I had more time. I had the fish of the day — I think it was snapper — and a glass of something white, and it came to about sixty dollars with the tip. That's the kind of price that makes you blink if you're from somewhere cheaper, but it's roughly what you expect for a decent lunch in the city centre these days. I sat by the window and watched the street — the buses pulling in and out of the Britomart transport hub across the way, the stream of people in dark winter coats, the way the city hums even on a grey Thursday afternoon.
After lunch, I walked up to the Auckland Art Gallery on Wellesley Street. I'd meant to visit earlier in the week and it hadn't happened, so I made it my last stop of the day. The gallery is free for the permanent collection, which is something I love about this city — you don't have to pay to encounter beauty. I wandered through the Māori and Pacific rooms, and stood for a long time in front of a portrait that I couldn't stop looking at. I don't remember the artist's name, which feels like a failure of attention, but I remember the expression on the subject's face — a kind of patient weariness that felt familiar. I stayed until the light started to change, until the gallery guards began drifting toward the doors.
On the walk home, I stopped at the Countdown on College Hill and bought the things I'd need for the road — a bag of apples, a block of cheese, a loaf of bread, some crackers. A packet of biscuits that I told myself were for emergencies. It came to about twenty-two dollars, which felt reasonable, though I'm still adjusting to the prices of some things. Cheese, in particular, seems to cost twice what it does at home. The apples were fine, but I kept thinking about the honey from Grey Lynn, how I'd barely made a dent in the jar. I packed it last, wrapped in a tea towel so it wouldn't break in the car.
I've done the maths on the week, roughly, because I'm the kind of person who needs to know. The flat, the food, the coffee, the two restaurant meals, the transport — I'd guess I've spent somewhere around a thousand dollars since I landed, not counting the flat deposit or the boxes. The weekly public transport cap of fifty dollars is a gift — it means the buses and trains and inner-harbour ferries effectively cost the same as about four coffees. But meals add up fast. A cappuccino here runs about six dollars. A beer, twelve. A dinner for two in the city — three courses, no wine — is around a hundred and twenty before you add anything else. The fish and chips at the market, which I recommend without reservation, will set you back about twenty. None of this is a warning; it's just a map. You want to know what a day costs before you live it.
The last thing I did, before the light went completely, was stand at my kitchen window and watch the street lamps flicker on. There is a moment in Auckland winter when the city turns from grey to gold — not in colour, but in temperature, in the quality of the air. The cold sharpens; the sounds change; the lights come on in windows up and down the street. I thought about the people in those windows, living their ordinary Tuesday night — cooking dinner, watching the news, folding laundry. I don't know them, and I probably never will, but they've been part of my landscape this week, and I'll miss the view.
Tomorrow I drive. The car is hired — a small white hatchback that I'll have until Wellington, where I'll decide whether to buy something or keep renting. It's about a nine-hour drive if you go straight through, but I'm not going straight through. I'm taking the slower route, down through the geothermal fields and the working towns, staying in places I've only read about. I don't know yet exactly where I'll stop tomorrow night, and that feels like the right note to end on. This week was about landing. The next part is about travelling. Kia ora for listening, whānau. I'll talk to you from the road.
One more thing, and then I'll let you go. If you're listening to this from home, wherever home is, and you're wondering whether you could do what I'm doing — leave a place you know for a place you don't — the answer is yes. It's not a matter of bravery, or money, or timing. It's a matter of showing up. Of letting the boxes sit on the floor until you're ready for them. Of drinking the coffee and walking the streets while you can. Aotearoa has been patient with me this week, and I'm trying to learn from that patience. I'll see you out there. Kia ora.