The hostel we stayed in on Tuesday night made us very glad to have our own van. The area has many vinyards and requires quite a few seasonal workers - some of which had made home in the hostel. We felt like we were intruding! Wednesday On leaving our hostel we made our way to a lookout called Bluff Head for great views over Napier and Hawke Bay, on a good day you can also see to Mount Ruapehu looking inland. We made the short journey from Napier to the nearby town of Hastings. We had a brief look around the [View Full Entry]

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Wednesday After a busy first week we decided to take life a bit easier, on both body and wallet and have spent our time on the road exploring beautiful coastal scenery (and dodgy roads!), walking on driftwood-covered beaches, watching stunning sunsets and the like. We ventured north to the Bay of Plenty coast and the small seaside town of Whakatane, which looks out towards the White Island, a large active volcano towards the edge of the Taupo volcanic plateau. Having had our fill of volcanic activity, we spent the afternoon doing some local trails and enjoying some sunshine as the weath [View Full Entry]

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Thankfully Monday morning didn't involve the usual pre-work routine for myself. Alex on the other hand had two more days to endure. Ensuring that I used my time productively Alex had left me a list of jobs that needed completing before we headed off in Max. Job one involved walking down Queen Street stopping in at Quantas to enquire about new tickets, the Australian Embassy to see if our visas are ok, the department of conservation ("DOC") too see about some free camp sites and STA to get some more insurance for skiing. These jobs done I also had to drive [View Full Entry]

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Another week at work (our last) was punctuated on Tuesday night by some celebrations for Simon's 26th birthday. After some pub grub, we went to the Silo Theatre, part of 'The Edge' complex just off Aotea Square. The play was called 'Take Me Out' and had won a Tony award in 2003. Set in America, it dealt with attitudes/fallout from a baseball player's announcement that he was gay. Although we were aware that it 'contained nudity', we were to discover that the set contained showers and at one point six men were butt naked, showering playing out a locker room scene!! [View Full Entry]

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Time seems to be flying by now which is why we haven't managed to update the blog for two weeks! During the week we have been passing the time working, which is enjoyable enough. However, we're both getting itchy feet to get off on our trip so thankfully there is only just over a week to go until we can head south to the ski fields. We spent the first weekend buying some hardware to try and make Max a bit less of a target for our remaining time here in New Zealand. Nothing will now be visible from the outside [View Full Entry]

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Our week passed fairly quietly, with Simon starting at Auckland City Council in a three week position on Thursday. The job is helping book people onto events for a Heritage Festival taking place in Auckland later in the month. He has managed to use his position to our advantage by booking us onto one of the free events before we head out of Auckland. On Friday we ventured out for a drink with our now good friends from the hostel: Anja and Mick, who we would be saying goodbye to and also met Thom, a Uruguaian who moved out of our [View Full Entry]

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This week, on the blog. Alex carried on with her law work for the week. Thankfully she's feeling more settled and is gaining confidence as she picks up all the skills and experience required for most of her work. I carried on at my office job where I had to ring customers for large portions of the day. Unfortunately this work ran out on Tuesday so I was back to the building site for the rest of the week. I think I would go crazy if it wasn't for our Australian friend called Mick, who has also moved into our hostel [View Full Entry]

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When you next drink a glass of wine, spare a thought for the blood, sweat and tears that have gone into making it! This weekend, Simon and I headed south of Auckland for the first time and stayed at a vineyard in the Mangatawhiri area, where we partook in some 'stripping'. No, this was no warm-up to the upcoming Erotica festival being held here in Auckland next week (male readers will be interested to hear that one event in this festival is imaginatively titled 'Boobs on bikes' and involves topless women being driven down Queen Street on motorcycles). Basically our role [View Full Entry]

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Well, Simon here again. I've been getting lazy and letting Alex update you recently. Anyway, while Alex is at work I can have my say. Since our first venture into woofing last weekend we have been back in Auckland trying to get ourselves jobs to pay our way and save up for some adventure tours when we set off on our travels around the three islands (yes, three. Stewart Island is off the south coast of the south island). Anyway, having heard nothing from the first recruitment agency we signed up at I went along, bright and early at 7am, to [View Full Entry]

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3 August Up early and while I had another round of typing/word tests at a different recruitment agency, Simon went for a '$10 haircut' (unfortunately its quality was commensurate with its price) and got the recommended repairs done on Max prior to our departure up the coast. We set off about noon and made our first stop the Whangaparoa penninsula and the Shakespear Regional Park. It seems that NZ is so crammed with natural wonders that they can't all be accredited with 'national' status. After a picnic overlooking the sea we continued, enjoying the sunshine and the fact that it was [View Full Entry]

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