| Sunday 24th/ Tuesday 26th I got on the plane and when i landed it was 6am on Tuesday...I had lost a day. Its a weird thing to lose a day, I keep wandering where it has got to. Anyway checked into the hostal in Auckland (ACB) and chilled for a few hours. Checked into the room, it was the same as Liz, they have mixed dorms here...excellent! Grabbed some brekkie then we booked our kiwi experience for 20 days round both islands. Sounds like fun, although I hear it involves a lot of drinking and partying. Its so not my bag! We went up the skytowe for some amazing views of the city. Its quite a big place, with some really nice bays and islands just off the harbour. Then I headed to bed for 5 hours as I was starting to feel the effects of being up for 3 days. I woke again to watch the Germany football match, and have some beers. Headed to bed straight after! Wednesday 27th Did some food shopping today for tomorrow, when we start the Kiwi experience, then we went to see Star Wars. Great movie! Headed to Kelly Tarletons underwater world where was penguins and sharks. Pretty cool there, the penguins getting fed and swimming were pretty awesome. Heading to watch football later and an early nite as we have an early start in the am! Nite! Well, I lay down after dinner and when my alarm went off at 10.30pm, I could not move, I was so tired - so we just stayed in bed! 28th The Kiwi Experience Picked up the bus at 8am and we drove round picking up various other folks from other hostels. Drove up to Mt Eden for some great views of the city...nice up there but cold! We then drove to Thames, a little town on the Corumdel Penisula. We stopped for some shopping and lunch! Drove onto Whitanga, where we checked into a hostel for the nite. There was a great mix of people on the bus, from American to Irish! and me! We cooked some food and chatted to others in the kitchen before we headed down to Smitty's the only pub in town. We stayed there for a bit and chatted to some of the guys and locals, which was very interesting! We then went to another pub (yes, there were 2 there!) and had a few more beers - but this place was full of cousins and family members holding hands - it was a rather strange place, and the barman was so scary! We ran out of there and back to Smitty's for a nightcap then to bed! 29th Stinky So we left Whitanga and drove to Rotorua. The first thing we noticed was the stench there - its built on a goethermal fault line, so there is lots of activity there. We went round the thermal park and saw geysers, thermal pools and mud pools. It was quite nice, but as it was pouring and we were getting wet, it was not as good as could be. WE then checked into the hot rocks hostel. We wanted to do zorbing (you are strapped into the inside of a inflatable ball and then rolled down the hill), but as it was raining it was postponed. So instead, we took the cheaper option and walked around town for a bit. At night we went to a tradtional Mauri dinner and dance. We arrived at the fake village and saw some dudes making stuff and and doing some wrestling. We then walked into the dancing hall and watched a show for 30 mins. It had everything, great dancing, tears (from me) and super dresses. I didn't understand any of it, as it was in some crazy language plus I was really hungry but what was good was the hangi. This is a traditional meal cooked in ovens under ground using hot rocks. Really nice food and we ate tons. On way back, our bus driver made everyone from each country sing a song. Amazingly, I was the only Scot, so I proudly sang the Proclaimers...I think it went down well! 30th Left the stech behind and drove to Waitomo. Here we did some black water rafting. We got into the wet wetsuits, in the cold and then did some practice jumps into the icy river. We then headed down into the caves and wandered through them for a bit. We went over some waterfalls and rafted through some caves in total darkness. Here we could see the glowworms - they were amazing, and they illuminated the whole cave. After defrosting, we left there and drove to Taupo in the rain (do you detect a theme?) Arrived there and we cooked some dinner and had some wine. Sat chatting to the some of the other guys for a bit, then we all headed upstairs to the bar for some beers. We then headed to Holy cow's for some more beers. It was great in there - and it turned into a funny night! We were going to leave the next day as we could not do many activities here as it was so wet. (we really wanted to do the Tongariro crossing, a relaly nice walk) So we headed down to a tiny lodge in the middle of nowhere, but it had some great scenery! Sat there and had a great roast dinner - then sat and chatted, played cards till 11ish. There was only one dorm there with about 20 beds in it. Slept really well though. 1st july Taupo in the rain! Next morning, I was up early only to find that the it had been raining all morning and so the rivers were too dangerous. I still wanted to go, but he didn't want to go as there were girls there! So we sat about as there was nothing to do and waited for some idiots to come back from horse trekking in the rain. There was no TV there, so we had missed the world cup final - but we had it on vid, so we could watch it on the bus. Once we left there, we saw it on the TV. Great game and we cheered when Brasil scored! We stopped at a small town called Bulls - all the shops have funny names on them. (is the bank has a sing saying bank a bull, veggie man - vegta-bull!) Funny. Drove into Wellington and checked into the YHA. Cooked a stir fry then sat on email for a bit. I called Deb's, a girl I used to work with at Prudential. Bizarre, I still don't know how she knew I was in NZ? 2nd Wellington We woke later (9am) and Liz sorted her tickets out, whilst I spoke to Debs. We went to te Papa museam for a wander round and to indulge in some culture. It was quite interesting but I had seen this sort of thing b4. It was all natural world and volcano's etc. The interesting was the Mauri stuff and the immigrants section (heaps of Scottish people chatting on TV, it brought a tear to my eye!). Left there and met Debs - we went for a drive to Mt Victoria for some cracking views of the city and bay, then we drove round some suburbs called Island bay with some really nice houses. Headed back to Te Papa - will see her later for some beers. Just updating my diary now, before we do a food shopping for dinner. Probablay going to Molly Malone's bar here later, have you been? Note - crane in harbour was made in Glasgow in 1925, i took a picture of it... So we met Debs in Molly Malones and went drinking with her and a mate till closing time. We then went to Kitty O'Shea's till 3ish. We bumped into some of the guys of our old trip and they persuaded us to stay another day... 3rd More beer... So after getting up early to ensure we could stay another day we went back to bed. Woke at lunchtime and went on a tour of the beehive and NZ parliament. It was really nice in there - and with so many reminders of home. UK flags, coats of arms and tiles make in Stoke! We left there and went back to bed for a few hours. Woke up for some dinner and then we had some wine. We then wandered up to the other hostel to meet some of the other guys and girls. We sat there till 12ish chatting before we headed into town and to the Irish bar. It was quiet in there, but we had some fun. left there quite early as we had a boat to catch in the morning. 4th South Island We jumped on the bus to the ferry terminal and then hopped on the ferry. It was great, your luggage is checked in, to save you carrying it! So we sat on the big boat. The south island is so different to the north, more trees and hills and very much like Scotland! We saw a whale as we entered into Queen Charlotte sound. Arrived into Picton at 12.30pm then we drove to Nelson. We stayed in Club Nelson, which was really nice but very cold. We stayed in and watched the box...as it was too cold to go out plus I was knackered. 5th Nelson to Westport. We arrived into town in the early afternoon as some folks went on the shotover jet or horseriding (we were on the boat in the am!) so we just sat about till later when we went to the Irish bar. Sat there chatting for a bit then I started chatting to some real local redneck fishermen. I never realised how interesting fish are... Left there, very scared and then went to bed. |