So, Sunday morning arrives and it is time to leave Congleton and head for the airport. I'm pretty sure that everything is packed and Dad arrives a few minutes early ready to take my sister and I to the airport. As we get in the car Dad mentions that he heard a funny noise from the rear tyre on the way over, so as we chuck the rucksacks in the boot we have a quick look. Lo and behold! There is a nail in the tyre. Well, it hadn't fallen out in the drive across and the tyre wasn't deflating so we decided to go for it.
Around ten minutes into our journey, we heard a clunk and the sound of air escaping from the tyre, uh oh! Fortunately a layby was approaching so we threw all the stuff out of the boot of the car and changed the tyre in record time. It didn't help my nerves though as I started getting a bit worried about checking in. Disaster was averted though as we made it ok without any further mishaps!
I checked in and was pleased to find that my rucksack was due to make it's own way to Auckland without me having to look after it in Singapore, hooray! Then we had a cup of coffee before I said goodbye and went through passport control and into the departure lounge. I wandered down to where the depature gate was and was surprised to see that there was no plane there. Delayed on it's return from Bombay! It did arrive in the end and the delay turned out to be 30 minutes which we were assured could be made up by taking a short cut on the way. How do they do that eh? Surely they only make diversions over dangerous areas, like high mountains or war zones, so otherwise it must be the most direct route! It's not like taking a few back streets in Leeds to miss out on the traffic lights... or is it?
Pilot: Which way to day navigator, the direct route which only takes eleven hours, or the short cut route which only takes ten?
Navigator: Oh, the direct route, you know they'll only make us take home any food that doesn't get eaten if we take less time and miss a meal. I already have a freezer full of unrecognisable meals and I don't want any more!
Pilot: But they get big name chefs to make the menus
Navigator: That may be so, but I reckon they get some right divvers doing the cooking Pilot: TruePlane was fine, jumbo jet with screens in the backs of the seats, watched Traffic and Snatch on the journey. Former film was good, but a bit heavy going at times, second film was tricky to follow on the small screen, but pretty entertaining.
Having been to Hong Kong before, I had an idea of what Singapore was going to be like, I'd forgotten though how clammy it gets when it is hot and humid, yeeurch! Took a bus thing into the city centre and started to look for a camera. Haggled in one shop and got an amazing deal, until it came to the point of delivering the camera in to my hands. There didn't seem to be a camera, instead there were lots of similar ones at a similar price, which I didn't want. After much protestation, I did my usual "Let me think about this" and did a runner.
I did a bit of a tour around Singapore, taking the MRT (Metro) all around the island, getting a feel for the place. It did seem very similar to Hong Kong although it had a nicer, yet still distinct smell and was cleaner. Cleanliness is very important in Singapore and I had a nasty incident with a Strawberry milkshake when I wandered into the MRT slurping on a straw. When I got the bottom of the escalator I saw the sign which indicated that the fine for eating and drinking was approx 500$ (about 250 pounds). I stuck my head in a bin to finish the drink, which was fine, except that the milkshake started to go up my nose. Fearing a terrible scene, which would involve the distribution of the milkshake around the immediate area, I had to drop the rest in the bin.
I had a wander around the riverside area, whizzed up a skyscraper to have a good view of the city, ate some Javanese food which turned up a bit cold, not sure if it was supposed to or not but felt culturally inhibited to ask (doh!), dithered about going back to try and get the camera ( I didn't ) and them made my way back to the airport.
I did keep on falling asleep on the MRT, not because it was boring, oh no, but because I was chuffing tired and my body thought it was night time.
Singapore - great place, cool and useful transport system, haggling for goods, very humid!
The flight to Auckland (nearly 10 hours) was made a lot easier because it was so empty, I managed to get three seats all to myself which meant that once they finished trying to feed me airline 'food', that's an oxymoron for you, I was able to lie down and get some sleep. Had a great view of the Auckland area as we flew in to land, the local old volcanoes looked pretty impressive from the air and the countryside looked pleasant and green. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, so bracing myself for a bit if heat, I toddled out of the airport to find that it was actually a bit cold. I suppose it was Winter!
So having failed at my Singaporean camera buying mission, surely I'd fair better in Auckland, I'd heard that cameras were cheaper over here than in the uk, so I rubbed my hands in bargain hunting glee and set off on the bus into town. Chatted with bus driver, all the way in to town, about Leeds United as he is a fan and he pointed out all the places of interest on the way into Auckland from the airport. Well, he would have pointed any of them out if there had been any! Dropped my bags off under Auckland's biggest landmark, the SkyTower so that I wouldn't lose them and set off down to Queen Street, the big street with shops. After trying a number of camera shops I found that actually, the camera I wanted was more expensive than in the UK! Grrrr! Bought it anway and then whizzed up the Sky Tower to take some pictures. It's the highest thing in Auckland so you do get a cracking view.
Also, some of the floor is made of glass, so you can stand on it and look straight down. I managed this to take a picture on my new camera and then fearing a similar incident to the Strawberry Milkshake one, I moved away pretty sharp ish!
There were some great views as the sun went down as well of the harbour.
I managed to get in touch with my friends Marty and Sarah, who I'd met when I went snowboarding last year. They were living at Sarah's Mum's house which was around half an hour away from the city centre. They said I could stay at their house and that they would come and pick me up! Hooray!
By the time they arrived I was seriously sleepy, but I have to say, that Auckland seemed like a nice place, everybody was really friendly from the bus driver to the camera shop people to the lift operator on the sky tower. They all wanted to know where I was from, what was I doing in NZ etc..
Had a bit of a lie in this morning and then sat about having a read before Sarah returned from work for some lunch. Then I headed off for a wander down to one of the local beaches. This was most pleasant, I love being by the seaside and it was really relaxing. Then I headed home to have a look at their PC which was doing a bit of a wild thing, the sound card didn't work etc. So, I had a furtle around and managed to get things going, Marty then arrived and I explained that he could do with some more PC memory. Off we went to find a local PC shop to buy some!
The bizarrest thing today was a van I saw drive past which was called "Hire-a-Hubby", I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions!
Forgot to mention that Marty and I got caught in a traffic jam on the way back from getting bits for the PC, so rather than wait in the car, it was time for my Kiwi Pub induction. We found a small 'pub' place and I tried my first pint of Lion Red, which I have to say, was rather tasty!
I decided to be a bit more adventurous today and head into Auckland to do the Coast to Coast walk. This is a walk from the East coast of the North Island to the West coast, at this point though the island is only about 10 miles across so not too far!
The walk started at the old ferry building in the harbour and wound it's way up the hill towards the University. I found a rather cool little art gallery on the way, which was not marked anywhere, so I felt that I had discovered something cultural, hooray!
The Uni is alongside Albert Park and there are a few of Auckland's old buildings up there, which are old, but not when compared to old buildings in England. Considering I stayed in an English Farmhouse which was built in 1621 the other weekend, a house which is just over a hundred years old doesn't seem quite as exciting!
Next was Auckland Domain, a large park which I didn't really take that much notice of as behind me a girl threw herself on the floor and burst into tears! She had loads of bags and it transpired that she had had a huge argument with her boyfriend and he had carried on without her. There was a huge hill up ahead so a fellow passer by and I helped to carry her bags up the hill. She was in a right state and when we reached the top of the hill she started to wail as she saw her boyfriend stride off into the distance. Well, I offered to run after him and stop him as the aural onslaught was proving to be too much! This did seem like a good idea, but by the time I caught up with him I was so hot, and he'd stopped anyway to let her catch up, great!
So in a rather hot state, I carried on to the next part of my walk, Mt. Eden. This is an old volcano crater with a park and triangulation point on the top, so more uphill tramping ensued until I reached the top. My moment of victory as I reached the top was slightly dampened, quite literally, as a huge raincloud advanced towards me over the city, well, at least it cooled me down a bit.
After tootling down the other side of the old volcano, I found myself in a residential section, enlivened by the Teacher training college which I had to pass through on the way. When I passed the student canteen I thought it may be a good opportunity to get some cheap food! I could look like a student teacher, couldn't I? So, I headed down the steps into the canteen. That is the wet steps. Yes, the wet, slippery steps which lull one into a false sense of security. I think I probably blew my cover has I crashed down the steps into the canteen door. Fortunately the grazes were only minor and the students playing pool just gave me a pitiful look rather than laughing out loud.
One cheese toastie later, which was bobbins to be honest, I was on my way again towards Cornwall Park and the highlight of my walk One Tree Hill. I really wanted to get to the top of this hill, because of it's links with U2 and because it looked cool from the plane on the way in. Imagine my disappointment when I reached the top to find that it is currently None Tree Hill as a Maori activist had chopped the tree down. Well, all credit to the activist, it is a sacred site after all and there are points which need to be made.
The rest of my walk was through more residential areas, the best bit being Jellicoe Park and some more old(ish) buildings before hitting the other sea. One bus ride later and I'm back in the city centre where I was due to meet Marty and Sarah.
When they arrived we headed off to the delightfully named Ponsonby where we had a traditional Kiwi Curry which was rather tasty!
An early start today as I caught the bus to the picturesque Bay of Islands. Unfortunately, the bus drove straight pass the bus stop without.. err, stopping, leaving me with a slight dilemma. The silver lining was that a bus turned up ten minutes later, going to the same place, but a different company, and it was cheaper, Hurrah!
It took all morning to get to Paihia which is the main town in the Bay. I hopped off the bus and gravitated towards the Mousetrap Hostel. This place is really rather eccentric and groovy. Check out the link for a look at what it is like.
Once I dropped my bags off at the hostel, I wandered into the town centre for a look around. Three minutes later, I headed along the coast road towards Kelly Tarlton's Diving museum and the site of the signing of the Waitangi treaty which underpins New Zealand's recent history.
The museum was rather deserted, but the woman who was running the coffee shop switched on the lights for me to look around. It is in an old lighter ship which used to carry sugar around the docks of Auckland. Down I went into the hold of the ship and soon found myself swaying from side to side. This did surprise me as things clanked around, as I didn't think the water was that choppy when I boarded the ship. As I staggered to the left, I realised that the hold wasn't swaying, it was just a clever contraption which made the lamps move giving the impression of movement. Well, you can imagine how stupid I felt (no, really, I did feel stupid)!
There were some interesting exhibits, including some Rothschild jewellery and some groovy sunglasses from a Russian liner that sank in the seventies ( I think ).
From the ship I headed across the river to the treaty site where I saw the approximate place where the treaty was signed which gave the Queen of England sovereign authority over New Zealand in exchange for protection from other European countries who were sniffing around. This hasn't always worked out best for the Maori people and there is still a lot of work to be done in terms of rights for the Maoris at this time by the sounds of it.
The best sight at the site was the Maori War canoe which is huge! It lives in a special hut, I suppose to keep it dry when it isn't used, along with the tree trunk from one of the trees used to build it. I'd have liked to have seen it out on the sea, but I guess that you cannot have loads of Maori warriors hanging around waiting for tourists to turn up.
I was really tired at the Mousetrap that evening, so I had a relatively early night, had a good sleep and awoke to some awful weather. It was chucking it down and as far as the eye could see there were nasty rain clouds.
This scuppered my plan of doing the all day boat trip around the islands, so I considered having a relaxing day at the hostel, but instead wandered into town and took the ferry across to the little settlement called Russell. It used to be known as the "Hell Hole of the Pacific" when settlers were first there, but it has tidied its act up a bit since then. I had a bit of a wander round and took in a nice cup of coffee before deciding that I would risk the afternoon boat trip
The weather did seem a bit better after lunch and the 50-odd seater catamaran took us out into the bay and we zoomed around some of the islands with gorgeous beaches and clear blue water. I'm sure that in the Summer months it would be fantastic to go out for a bit of sunbathing, but it was a bit cold for that sort of thing in Winter.
We headed out to a point between two islands where the waves were really crashing in. From here on we would be in the open sea and if we wanted to go to the famous "Hole in the rock" then there was some huge waves to tackle. The crew had a little huddle where they decided whether to go for it or not and after a minute or two, we set off into the open sea. Crikey, I don't think I've ever been in such choppy waters, it was like being on a rollercoaster and people started being rather ill towards the back of the boat. I knew that this would be an opportunity for me to see how my sea stomach was and I can safely say that it coped!
After that excitement we approached to rock with the hole in it and it looked like we were unable to get through as the sea was smashing itself in through the hole with some ferocity. We chugged around the other side to see what it was like, then back again before the captain went for it. We shot forward at a vast rate of knots and I was bracing myself for a crash into the side when with one last surge we were in the calmer section in the middle of the hole. Phew, that did seem very close! Getting out was just as exhilarating as went from the calm bit to the really choppy section, but we did it!
The journey back wasn't as exciting and unfortunately we didn't see any dolphins, so I'll have to wait for that one. Had a chat with some people on the way back, Steve and Di who had come across from the West Midlands to NZ to get married. They were married in Christchurch and the local papers picked up on it as an overseas wedding and they had more paper coverage than the general election results in the post-election paper! Steve had just bought the same camera as I had done, so we had a sad little huddle for a few minutes talking gadget.
Steve and Di offered me a lift back to Auckland the next day, but when I woke up that morning, the sun was shining and it was lovely and warm. I decided to catch the bus later on in the afternoon and so spent the rest of the day in Russell, visiting the museum and lolling about on the beach in the sunshine.
When I got back to Auckland, Marty and Sarah met me at the bus station and we went out for food at the local Mongolian Barbeque. I had not been to one of these before but I remember them being quite popular in England a few years ago, but basically you grab the different bits of food that you want and the chef then quickly cooks them on a big wood fired hotplate. It was rather tasty, even if I say so myself!
For my last day in Auckland I thought it would be rude not to visit the Museum of Technology and Transport which was out to the West of the city. I went on the bus and have to say that I was very disappointed. A lot of the exhibits had not been updated for years and it needs a serious injection of cash. The best bit was the little tram ride to the zoo which nearly ended up in a car crash as a car pulled in front of us without looking! All of the various emergency brake systems were used to stop the tram, just in time! I was sharing the tram with a group of Primary school children and when I looked around I saw some very white faces.
After that disappointment I headed across to the other end of the city to Kelly Tarlton's Underwater and Antarctic world. This was much better. There is an exhibition about Scott and the Antarctic including a reproduction of the main hut they used where they showed some old film of the expedition. I didn't realise this, but the old hut is still out there in the wintery wastes and has food and things in it.
You then get the chance to see some penguins which are kept in this big tank thing underground at Antarctic temperatures, great to see, but I did feel a bit sorry for them as they will never see the real light of day again. Next was an underwater aquarium where you walk through the tank in an acrylic tunnel. This was the first one in the world to let you do that and it was most impressive, some serious sharks and rays zooming around giving one the eye.
The excitement didn't stop there either as in the evening, Marty, Sarah and I went to some hot thermal pools just North of where they live. There were some big, water tube slides which were most entertaining as it was pitch black. It was also very cold when you were out of the pools but lovely and warm when having a soak. One of the pools had a big screen where one could watch films or sports programs, nice!
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