Hello from the other side of the world, 11 hours ahead of you all at home
23/5
Different time zones now from what we have been used to so Oz time we landed in Sydney at 5.15am and a 2 hour wait until the flight to Auckland. I finally brought a NZ guidebook at the airport in Sydney-no reading up before we arrived this time! We arrived in Auckland (different time zone from Oz) at lunchtime and got the Airbus in to the city. The flight was only 2 and a half hours. Got myself a YHA membership so that I can save $3 every night when staying in a YHA member hostel. It also gave me a free nights accomodation and $10 off another night so not that bad for $40. The hostel was really nice and clean yet really quiet for a central Auckland hostel. Walked around in the afternoon and like what I see so far. There is a chill in the air so it's like being at home in winter but actually being almost as far away from home as I could be. Miss you all xxx
24/5
Ell checked out of the hostel today and moved across the city to stay with a mate, free accomodation-alright for some!! We met back up later and went to a supermarket, we can finally start cooking for ourselves. We walked around the city some more and then I went back to the hostel for a snooze. We met back up for dinner and ended up making it at Jack's. Walked back from his flat and the city was completely dead. When I got back to the hostel, there was no-one in my room so I had a whole four bed dorm to myself. That was nice to have some proper space of my own that no-one else was in and I could go to bed when I wanted and get up when I wanted and not have to worry about waking anyone in the room up which was a nice change from other rooms when you are forever worrying about not making too much noise.
25/5
Wandered around some more today. Si and Emma arrive tomorrow so will be good to see some more people we know. Strange being able to see Jack let alone have two other friends arrive soon. So after changing all my flights because I was going on the Kiwi Experience as we were going to part company and go off and do our own thing, it was decided that we would look into getting a car/campervan as it would be cheaper with two of us and would mean that we could go where we wanted when we wanted. Long story....
26/5
Walking around today (it's all we seen to do) we managed to find a road of car hire companies. Checked out a "Spaceship" it looked well cool. It is a Toyata people carrier painted orange- www.spaceships.tv We went to the hostel where Si and Emma are staying and found them. So nice to see them! Strange to be far away yet now have a group of friends from home around. We went for dinner at Burger Fuel- oh my god it was the biggest burger I have ever seen, only managed to eat 3/4's of it!
27/5
Today we did the Sky Walk. It was scary to start with as you are only held on above you and there are no barriers either side of you. They get you to lean over the side to take you pic. That picture is at home now so some of you may have seen it by now. The others all did the Sky Jump, no thank you! I got nervous enough just waiting at the bottom for them, 192m below. Si's jump was funny- the running man! Sorted out my bag a bit and then went to the post office and send the box home, should take 10 business days (it arrived in four I'm told so not bad). Exciting dinner of beans on toast. In the evening we went back to the Sky Tower and up to the observation deck to see the city lit up at night.
28/5
I was up at 6am to go and watch the Champs final, what a waste of time, not only did they loose, it was a rubbish game. So I was up really early and no-one else was so I went shopping to get some clothes to keep me warm. When everyone else was up we met up and went to the museum and sorted out hiring the spaceship for tomorrow. So after gearing up for NZ alone I'm now travelling well road tripping it up with 3 friends- a far more fun option I think! The museum was cool, saw lots of Maori stuff. Had to make a stop at the supermarket to replace the shower gel and shampoo that I left in the shower yesterday and the cleaners threw away- how annoying as they were nearly full! Found a Cadbury's offer so naturally had to buy some! Didn't have any dinner as I had eaten too much chocolate on the walk back from the shop, whoops!!
29/5
Spent 3 hours in the morning sorting out picking up the Spaceship. It is called K9. We had to get a train to the depot which was a pain. After loading up the bags and then picking up the boys snowboards, we hit the road. We saw some pink sheep outside Sheep World and as we have our own car and can do what we want, we pulled over and had a look. It was too expensive to go in so we parked in the car park and went to look at the sheep in the fields we could see from there! Cheeky but what can you do... We arrived in Whangarei to find no extra space in the hostel that Emma and Si had reserved so me and Ell stayed in the van in the car park and were allowed to use the facilities of the hostel- not bad, they only charged us 2 pound between us! The van came with a duvet and pillows and what with our sleeping bags and liners, we thought we would be ok through the night. It came with a heater as well but as we were not in a proper campsite there was nowhere to plug it in, oh well
New Zealand is cool so far and I think that it will just keep getting better and better
xxx
