We arrived at Auckland at about 12 in the afternoon local time. Luckily I was nowhere near as jet lagged as Hong Kong since I'd managed to get some sleep on the plane. After making our way through their heaps of secruity checks, (a sniffer dog was convinced I had recently had fresh fruit or meat in my NEW BACKPACK THAT HAD NEVER BEEN IN CONTACT WITH EITHER) we met up with a rep from IEP who took us onto his bus. We were taken up to the top of Mount Eden where we could look out over all of Auckland.
We hopped back on the bus and were taken to ACB, our hostel. The place is really really good and I could quite happily stay their for the whole 2 months that I plan on being here. The rooms are basic but have the essentials. The 6th floor has a balcony bar which is really chilled and seems to have free BBQs on all the time. Down on the 3rd floor they have the main desk with very helpful friendly staff, loads of travel info, good washing facilities and a massive kitchen. The showers are pretty small but nothing I cant deal with.
On the night of our arrival went to Globe, a bar which is conveniently right next to the hostel. They have loads of deals on for people staying at the hostel, that night it was all the pizza you could eat plus a free beer for 10 dollars. I was so so so full of pizza that night. We stuck around and had a few drinks and played some pull which was pretty fun.
The next morning was our orientation at the IEP center. We were given loads of information about New Zealand, places we could go, jobs we could get and how to go about sorting our bank account and tax number out. After the orientation I think everyone felt like they had alot more idea about what they wanted to do with their time here as we were all pretty clueless before hand. We chilled for the rest of the day and then headed out at night to a Thai resturaunt, which there seems to be loads of in Auckland. Stucky rice was nomnom, veggie curry not so good but I ate it. Since it was St. Patricks day, and a rediculous ammount of people over here were celebrating it, we headed out to an Irish looking bar, that didnt sell Guiness 0.0, for a wee drinky.
By now I had an idea of where I was at, I had everything I needed to start work, a good idea of what I wanted to do and I was starting know my way around Auckland. I was ready to start having some fun!
