My initial impression of Auckland was that it was similar to Seattle and San Francisco. Lot of steep hills and modern buildings. I thought it was interesting when the US embassy came to talk to us and we heard about their history and how tariffs impacted them. There is plenty of differences for example the drive on the opposite side of the roads, everything is expensive, they have paid vacation for 4 weeks. Everything feels laid back. So much is closed because of Christmas and New Years, and everything is closed so early here. We hiked Mt. Eden, and it was beautiful. The food here is good but I still think we make better pizza. I will say since they produce a lot of dairy, the coffee and ice cream are delightful. This is a lot of Asian food here I would say it tastes similar to Houston Chinatown. There is good amount of diversity here and there is no such thing of estate tax or inherit tax. I really like the people they are very welcoming and kind and they call each other kiwis despite the species of bird called kiwi is almost extinct. We just went to go look at hundreds of sheep on hills; it was very cute. I have learned a lot about kiwi’s stance on tariffs and trade relations with Australia and China and had lots of fun discovering their way of life and scenery.
