Yesterday over at the IEP center me and Daryl were looking for things to do so we signed ourselves up for everything they had going. Last night, joined by Carys, we went to IEPs movie night. 10 dollars for a movie, burger and fries! Im all about the budgeting these days so I was all for it. Burgers were provided by the legendary Burger Fuel which made me happy, went for the Combustion Vege again, they're so so good. I also made a new discovery. Burger Fuel have these things called "doofers", they're little bits of cardboard that have folds and stuff so you can piece them together. After spending 20 minutues trying to figure out what they were for we decided to ask and, how could we not have realised, they're for holding your burgers in. This amazing piece of technology caused me to make, i would say, 80% less mess eating this burger than I did with the last. Crazy stuff out here in New Zealand.
Our choices of film were Whale Rider or Sione's Wedding, both set in New Zealand. We wernt too bothered so they recommended Sione's Wedding. Its a comedy about some New Zealand guys who have cause trouble at weddings in the past, get banned from their mates wedding and then all have to redeem themselves kinda thing. Typical American style comedy except in New Zealand but it was pretty damn funny. Don't think the two Germans who were watching with us liked it very much, they had poor senses of humour.
After the film we headed back to the hostel with our new friend Amanda from Canada, who we met at the movie night, and played cards allll night long. I've learnt so many new card games since I got to New Zealand, some of them are very silly.
We had also signed ourselves up to do a free tour of Auckland today, that the Kiwi Experience buses do. Not only was this something for me to do for the day but a chance to check out what the Kiwi Experience buses are like since I plan on traveling most of NZ in one.
We got on the bus in the morning and I was suprised how many people were on, I expected us to be the only ones. The Kiwi Experience bus drivers act as the tour guide kinda things aswell so he was giving us commentary as we drove along and he was hillarious. Our first stop was the Auckland Harbour Bridge. We walked along a walkway which runs underneath the actual road on the bridge, attatched by saftey belts, until we were half way along where climbed up some steps into a pod that people do bungy jumps from. Two people from our group had decided to do one so we all got to watch them. The guys who worked there were really good, they got the 2 people about to jump all syked up then they open the side of the pod and play some music to make a really cool atmosphere. Watching them made me pretty nervous for the jump I'll be doing considering mines is more than 3 times the hight of the one I watched today!
After taking some pictures from the middle of the bridge we headed back along and onto the bus. Our next stop should have been Mt. Victoria or something like that but the bus we had couldn't fit up there so instead we headed to a big hill called North Head. We got there and hiked up loads and loads of steps, checking out the big cannons that we're put there before the first world war on the way. Near the top there were a couple of bunker things, which our guide told us loads about the history of which was pretty cool, and aweome views of Auckland, the harbour and of Rangitoto - the most recent of the many volcanoes in and around Auckland.
We headed back down and onto the bus towards our las, Devenport, one of Aucklands suburbs. This was pretty much only to get lunch so we headed to a chippy and got a nice big bag of chips. They were so so so so yummy, first time I'd had chippy chips in ages. Yum.
In the afternoon, some of the people who we met on the Kiwi bus were up for going to the beach so we all headed over to Mission Bay (I remember the name, oh yes.). It was fairly nice beach, shells everywhere though which hurt my bumbum, and it was getting a bit cloudy by the time we got there. We were lucky and got a fair bit of sun though which was nice.
Tonight I've just been chilling in the hostel as usual. Made some egg fried rice for my tea which Carys and her roommates were amazed at, she assumed I wouldnt be able to cook, ha!
Tomorrow I really really want to book my Kiwi bus. My tour today made it seem like theyre definately worth it plus I want out of Auckland since getting a job here looks unlikley. I heard both from my uncle Alberto and from IEP that Hawkes Bay, south east of Auckland, has a shortage of seasonal workers, like fruit pickers, so my plan is to travel with Kiwi Experience down as far as Taupo and then take a local bus to Napier which is in Hawkes Bay. Hopefully I can find some work there before I run out of money.
Tomorrow, im getting up early to phone my mummy, yay.
