My wild Saturday night in Auckland (general entry details)
I had originally typed out the events of my Saturday in Auckland as one long private/locked entry for those of you who read those entries. But it became so long and I didn't want to cut out the non-sexual lead-up/details, so I decided to share the pg part of the night here in a general entry, to be immediately followed by a locked entry post with the steamy details from both my experience as well as Scott's - he has asked that for this vacation, I post his separate boy-ventures as well as my own. Those of you who have asked to be part of that reading list should know who you are by now, and should expect to see a locked post right after this one.
Anyway, on with the entry:
Saturday night in Auckland was our opportunity to really hit the town. We had wanted to go out Friday night, but jetlag being what it was, we just couldn't muster up enough energy to be out and about much past 10:00pm.
We began our night on the town with a small list of bars that were recommended to us by locals we had met both through the conference as well as on gay.com. We started out at a place called "Flesh", which was conveniently near our hotel. It was a two story facility, with only the top facility open before 11:00 - we arrived at 10:00. The top floor was serviced by a rather attractive young bartender, but was patronized by a crowd that looked both tired and old, the former being much more a party-kill than the latter trait. I expected Harvey Fierstein and Jim J Bullock to break into a karaoke duet from the back of the bar at any minute. We had a mercy drink and quickly left.
Onto the second location, "Hydrant". This was a charming little (redundancy intended so as to underline the point) establishment that was jam-packed full of hot guys. Of course, in this narrow two-story doll house that meant that all 50 people in the bar were attractive. Scott and I both made mutually intrigued eye contact with specific hotties that fit our interests, but with the sardine effect of the place, we could neither find ample room to accomodate comfortable introduction and conversation nor could we find the perseverence within oursevles to overcome the unavoidable claustrophobia brought on by this place. We had two wishful thinking drinks (maybe if we're drunk we won't notice that we're in an elevator) before bursting out of the front door onto the street in desperate search of a full breath of fresh air.
Then it was on to "Urge", a spot right in the heart of what would called Auckland's "red light" area, K' Road (short for Karanghape). This was billed to us as the place to go if you wanted "real men" who don't work retail or get catty and gossippy over something as simple as one of their friends sleeping with another one of their friends. When we arrived we learned that what was truly meant by "real men," was impressively statured men who unfortunately think that the smells in the locker rooms of the gyms they obviously frequent are sexy and thus strive to maintain such odors on their person 24-7. This was Tom of Finland gone stale...a tragic "near miss" that was nowhere close enough to a "hit" to consider going with. We had another drink (just the amount of time we could admire the physiques of these men before their odor overwhelmed us) and hit the street for a second time seeking a breath of fresh air, albeit for an entirely different reason this time.
Admittedly a bit frustrated, we had no other idea on where to go. We contemplated going back to Hydrant and just standing in the doorway so as to be able to step outside for frequent "I need some space" breaks. But ultimately we decided to go back to the original bar, "Flesh" to see if the lower level that had since opened up after we left was anything worth seeing.
So, we found ourselves back where we started, but it ended up being a great decision. the "after 11:00" area of the club was the perfect spot, offering a generous and varied sampling of interesting Kiwi boys dancing to canned, yet comfortably familiar dance remixes. We ordered drinks and settled right in.
We ran into one of my friends from the conference and began dancing as a group, when suddenly Scott taps me on the shoulder and points to someone up against the wall. I don't immediately recognize him, but Scott refreshes my memory telling me it is one of the guys at Hydrant a couple hours prior with whom he had made a significant amount of eye contact and had even exchanged a quick "hey, what's up". I waive Scott away to go talk to the guy, and soon enough they are head to head exchanging words in each others' ears over the loud music.
After a bit, Scott introduces me to his catch, a tall blonde 30 year old with a soul patch and impressively broad shoulders and chest. His name is Chris, and he is from Michigan originally, but has been living in New Zealand for five years now. After some pleasant conversation, Scott gives me that look like he is ready to get out of here, and not exactly with the date he showed up with (me). I ask him if he is going to be eating out or ordering room service, and he asks if it is okay to go with the latter. I have no problems with this and tell him I will call before heading back to the room if for some reason I am not fortunate enough to have somewhere else to go after the club. So they disappear for a rather good night (to hear Scott tell the tale) that I will share the details of in a separate entry.
Meanwhile...
I am still back at the club, occasionally dancing with my friends, but mostly just kicking back on one of a set of couches, watching the hotties go back and forth. Around 3:00 in the morning, I am beginning to think that indeed my night might very well end with the closing of the club. All of the sudden I feel a tap on my shoulder, it is one of the guys with whom I had exchanged a glance or two at the wee-little club, "Hydrant" a few hours earlier. Before I can say a word, he utters in a mouthwatering southern Australian accent, "I just wanted you to know you are the hottest guy in this whole club." I smile and say thank you very much, and he blows away as quickly and suddenly as he appeared. I sit there stunned.
15 minutes later, I am still sitting there wondering if that had really happened. Suddenly he is by my side again. This time he mutters something about me being in the same spot as before. At this moment, I don't really care what's coming out of his mouth beyond the delicious accent its being delivered in, I am just intent on him not fluttering away like before. I grab his hand as he's talking and pull him across me and into the empty space next to me on the love seat I am presently occupying.
After some introductory small talk, I learn that his name is Scott, he is 31 and is in Auckland on business from Melbourne, Australia. I silently congratulate myself on recognizing the nuance of his accent enough to place him in Southern Australia. He is mostly not out (only his sister and a couple friends know) but is in the process of doing that, as he has only been at peace with himself for about the last year or so. He has very little experience with guys, his first having been only 3 years prior. He doesn't go to the gay clubs in Melbourne, and uses the opportunities he has to travel to go out more and more over the last year as he has finally decided to see what being "gay" is all about with a positive mindset.
Physically, he is extremely strong, with a physique that suggests actual sports athleticism rather than any commitment to weight training. And in fact, I discover that he has played both soccer and rugby throughout university and still plays soccer in local city leagues. He is blond/blue with sharp, angular facial features that remind you of the way some marvel/dc comic superheroes are drawn. He is wearing blue jeans that are deliciously full at the crotch, and a black t-shirt that is probably the tightest thing he owns and thereby what he believes is the right thing to wear out to a gay club. For contemporary style, it wouldn't be what I would have picked out for him, but for how it accentuated his body, I could not have salivated more over the meal it advertised.
We talked for a bit, and then danced for a long while, taking every opportunity to explore one another discreetly in the dimly lit recesses of the club. Finally, at about 5:00 in the morning (when does this club close??) I tell him that I would really like to accompany him back to his hotel if he likes. He confesses that he was about to ask me the same thing about going back to my hotel. We compare reasons for not wanting to go back to our own hotels. My reason - that Scott is presently there enjoying someone's company - outweighs his - that his room is not well-kept at the moment. So we go back to his hotel for a more intimate exploration of one another as dawn prepares to arrive in Auckland. As I stated, the details will be posted shortly in a locked entry.
Before parting ways later that morning, We exchanged every form of contact info for each of us. This may seem strange being that it was a "hook-up" between two people from different countries who met while each visiting a mutual third country. But the nature of our conversation and non-verbal connection simply made it obvious that we should continue a friendship as best as possible by whatever means available to us living across the ocean from one another.
I saw him on the street later that day as Scott and I were shopping, it was a wierd chance meeting, and I asked if he would join us for lunch, but (as he had told me that morning) he was needing to get to the airport before long and still had to pack up his room. I told him to email me when he got a chance and we said our goodbyes, hugging as we parted. Doing this in broad daylight made him a bit nervous I could tell as he tensed up a bit, but he didn't pull away, and that made me proud of him.
Over the course of the next week, I got two of the most incredible emails from him, the second in response to my response to his first, expressing how great a time he had with me and how our time together and specifically our conversations gave him the courage to come out to his mother a few days after our meeting. This entry is already long enough, otherwise I would post some of the lines from his two emails that really made me feel great about meeting Scott (even more than I already did). Suffice it to say that reading his heartfelt words and hearing about his taking a crucial step in his coming out because of words that I had shared with him really reinforced my belief in the potential for every sexual experience, even with someone half way around the world that only lasts a night, to be infused with some special meaning that makes it more than the cheap meaningless tryst that some would insist that it must certainly be. I beg to differ, and am SO incredibly happy to have this and countless other experiences to support my perspective in this regard.
Anyway, on with the entry:
Saturday night in Auckland was our opportunity to really hit the town. We had wanted to go out Friday night, but jetlag being what it was, we just couldn't muster up enough energy to be out and about much past 10:00pm.
We began our night on the town with a small list of bars that were recommended to us by locals we had met both through the conference as well as on gay.com. We started out at a place called "Flesh", which was conveniently near our hotel. It was a two story facility, with only the top facility open before 11:00 - we arrived at 10:00. The top floor was serviced by a rather attractive young bartender, but was patronized by a crowd that looked both tired and old, the former being much more a party-kill than the latter trait. I expected Harvey Fierstein and Jim J Bullock to break into a karaoke duet from the back of the bar at any minute. We had a mercy drink and quickly left.
Onto the second location, "Hydrant". This was a charming little (redundancy intended so as to underline the point) establishment that was jam-packed full of hot guys. Of course, in this narrow two-story doll house that meant that all 50 people in the bar were attractive. Scott and I both made mutually intrigued eye contact with specific hotties that fit our interests, but with the sardine effect of the place, we could neither find ample room to accomodate comfortable introduction and conversation nor could we find the perseverence within oursevles to overcome the unavoidable claustrophobia brought on by this place. We had two wishful thinking drinks (maybe if we're drunk we won't notice that we're in an elevator) before bursting out of the front door onto the street in desperate search of a full breath of fresh air.
Then it was on to "Urge", a spot right in the heart of what would called Auckland's "red light" area, K' Road (short for Karanghape). This was billed to us as the place to go if you wanted "real men" who don't work retail or get catty and gossippy over something as simple as one of their friends sleeping with another one of their friends. When we arrived we learned that what was truly meant by "real men," was impressively statured men who unfortunately think that the smells in the locker rooms of the gyms they obviously frequent are sexy and thus strive to maintain such odors on their person 24-7. This was Tom of Finland gone stale...a tragic "near miss" that was nowhere close enough to a "hit" to consider going with. We had another drink (just the amount of time we could admire the physiques of these men before their odor overwhelmed us) and hit the street for a second time seeking a breath of fresh air, albeit for an entirely different reason this time.
Admittedly a bit frustrated, we had no other idea on where to go. We contemplated going back to Hydrant and just standing in the doorway so as to be able to step outside for frequent "I need some space" breaks. But ultimately we decided to go back to the original bar, "Flesh" to see if the lower level that had since opened up after we left was anything worth seeing.
So, we found ourselves back where we started, but it ended up being a great decision. the "after 11:00" area of the club was the perfect spot, offering a generous and varied sampling of interesting Kiwi boys dancing to canned, yet comfortably familiar dance remixes. We ordered drinks and settled right in.
We ran into one of my friends from the conference and began dancing as a group, when suddenly Scott taps me on the shoulder and points to someone up against the wall. I don't immediately recognize him, but Scott refreshes my memory telling me it is one of the guys at Hydrant a couple hours prior with whom he had made a significant amount of eye contact and had even exchanged a quick "hey, what's up". I waive Scott away to go talk to the guy, and soon enough they are head to head exchanging words in each others' ears over the loud music.
After a bit, Scott introduces me to his catch, a tall blonde 30 year old with a soul patch and impressively broad shoulders and chest. His name is Chris, and he is from Michigan originally, but has been living in New Zealand for five years now. After some pleasant conversation, Scott gives me that look like he is ready to get out of here, and not exactly with the date he showed up with (me). I ask him if he is going to be eating out or ordering room service, and he asks if it is okay to go with the latter. I have no problems with this and tell him I will call before heading back to the room if for some reason I am not fortunate enough to have somewhere else to go after the club. So they disappear for a rather good night (to hear Scott tell the tale) that I will share the details of in a separate entry.
Meanwhile...
I am still back at the club, occasionally dancing with my friends, but mostly just kicking back on one of a set of couches, watching the hotties go back and forth. Around 3:00 in the morning, I am beginning to think that indeed my night might very well end with the closing of the club. All of the sudden I feel a tap on my shoulder, it is one of the guys with whom I had exchanged a glance or two at the wee-little club, "Hydrant" a few hours earlier. Before I can say a word, he utters in a mouthwatering southern Australian accent, "I just wanted you to know you are the hottest guy in this whole club." I smile and say thank you very much, and he blows away as quickly and suddenly as he appeared. I sit there stunned.
15 minutes later, I am still sitting there wondering if that had really happened. Suddenly he is by my side again. This time he mutters something about me being in the same spot as before. At this moment, I don't really care what's coming out of his mouth beyond the delicious accent its being delivered in, I am just intent on him not fluttering away like before. I grab his hand as he's talking and pull him across me and into the empty space next to me on the love seat I am presently occupying.
After some introductory small talk, I learn that his name is Scott, he is 31 and is in Auckland on business from Melbourne, Australia. I silently congratulate myself on recognizing the nuance of his accent enough to place him in Southern Australia. He is mostly not out (only his sister and a couple friends know) but is in the process of doing that, as he has only been at peace with himself for about the last year or so. He has very little experience with guys, his first having been only 3 years prior. He doesn't go to the gay clubs in Melbourne, and uses the opportunities he has to travel to go out more and more over the last year as he has finally decided to see what being "gay" is all about with a positive mindset.
Physically, he is extremely strong, with a physique that suggests actual sports athleticism rather than any commitment to weight training. And in fact, I discover that he has played both soccer and rugby throughout university and still plays soccer in local city leagues. He is blond/blue with sharp, angular facial features that remind you of the way some marvel/dc comic superheroes are drawn. He is wearing blue jeans that are deliciously full at the crotch, and a black t-shirt that is probably the tightest thing he owns and thereby what he believes is the right thing to wear out to a gay club. For contemporary style, it wouldn't be what I would have picked out for him, but for how it accentuated his body, I could not have salivated more over the meal it advertised.
We talked for a bit, and then danced for a long while, taking every opportunity to explore one another discreetly in the dimly lit recesses of the club. Finally, at about 5:00 in the morning (when does this club close??) I tell him that I would really like to accompany him back to his hotel if he likes. He confesses that he was about to ask me the same thing about going back to my hotel. We compare reasons for not wanting to go back to our own hotels. My reason - that Scott is presently there enjoying someone's company - outweighs his - that his room is not well-kept at the moment. So we go back to his hotel for a more intimate exploration of one another as dawn prepares to arrive in Auckland. As I stated, the details will be posted shortly in a locked entry.
Before parting ways later that morning, We exchanged every form of contact info for each of us. This may seem strange being that it was a "hook-up" between two people from different countries who met while each visiting a mutual third country. But the nature of our conversation and non-verbal connection simply made it obvious that we should continue a friendship as best as possible by whatever means available to us living across the ocean from one another.
I saw him on the street later that day as Scott and I were shopping, it was a wierd chance meeting, and I asked if he would join us for lunch, but (as he had told me that morning) he was needing to get to the airport before long and still had to pack up his room. I told him to email me when he got a chance and we said our goodbyes, hugging as we parted. Doing this in broad daylight made him a bit nervous I could tell as he tensed up a bit, but he didn't pull away, and that made me proud of him.
Over the course of the next week, I got two of the most incredible emails from him, the second in response to my response to his first, expressing how great a time he had with me and how our time together and specifically our conversations gave him the courage to come out to his mother a few days after our meeting. This entry is already long enough, otherwise I would post some of the lines from his two emails that really made me feel great about meeting Scott (even more than I already did). Suffice it to say that reading his heartfelt words and hearing about his taking a crucial step in his coming out because of words that I had shared with him really reinforced my belief in the potential for every sexual experience, even with someone half way around the world that only lasts a night, to be infused with some special meaning that makes it more than the cheap meaningless tryst that some would insist that it must certainly be. I beg to differ, and am SO incredibly happy to have this and countless other experiences to support my perspective in this regard.