Auckland
So, after a long but uneventful journey from Ireland (though i did enjoy the foot massage macines in Singapore Airport, mmmm), we arrived in Auckland. The rest of NZ seems to view this place as a horrible, over-crowded dirty place but we thought it was lovely (if a little quiet for a city). We spent a day walkng all over it, through parks and up volcanoes until my legs were a few inches shorter and i was properly sunburnt.
We hired the car the next day and took of in that looking around, go for walks in the hills. The highlight of that day was the micro brewery we came across and the obligatory beer tasting...
Camping
Then, the camping began. We had to shop for all the eqipemnt for our new pikie lifestyle. We were oohing and aahing over the the plastic plates, cheapo saucepans and crappy cutlery; weighing up the benefits of plastic versus glass for our vino (don't worry, we're not that pikie, glass won).
The tent went up slowly and looked pretty pathetic next all the fancy camper vans with their folding furniture but we were very pleased with our position right next to the bush. Until we were woken on the first night by a monster making scary loud noises right next to the tent. In the cold light of day however, we have concluded that it was probably a duck.
Diving
Right now, we're spending a couple of days on the beach in a place called Papamoa (East Coast, North Island). The beach streches on for absolutely mile (so do the beach houses), it is a strange place...lots of houses all stretched out, but no restaurants or town centre much to speak of. Before we drove down here, we were up in the northland. Lovely and tropical up there, the best bit was our diving trip a couple of days ago. We went out to the Poor Knights Islands if that means anything to anyone. I went snorkelling and since i haven't done it in about 8 years, was a bit worried about repeating previous stupid snorkelling behaviour (breathing through nose then panicking due to tight mask and lack of oxygen; getting in and straight away getting deep water vertigo and hyperventilating, necessitating immediate removal from the water) but i was very cool. I had to be, I was too emabarrassed not to since our skipper was some kind of free diving champ and everyone else was all brave and going proper diving. Eoin and his dive buddy Darren managed to go astay, got totally lost underwater and surfaced in another bay with no dive boat in sight. Luckily a passing boat came over and gave them a lift round to us with no hassle but they looked pretty sheepish.
ID
Have to say that my particular highlight of the trip so far is that i have been asked for ID twive when buying wine. TWICE. My wrinkles must be smoothing themselves out! The first time i was a bit too over flattered and they ended up not even looking at my id but the second time i played it pretty cool, like it happened to me all the time. I love it!
Kauri Trees
And this bit is just for you Tasha, we've been walking in Kauri Forests and saw one 800-year old Kauri tree just south of Warkworth. It has been duly photographed for you but i can't upload pics just yet.
So that is that obviously we're missing london like mad. running out of time, i'll update again soonsih...
