Rest of New Zealand and on to Sydney: Part 1

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Hello, and welcome to our blog trilogy. As we haven't blogged for quite a while we bring you our update in 3 parts. First, our travels up to the end in New Zealand, secondly we wanted to talk about New Zealand in a more general light so in part two we have some insights into New Zealand as a country and as a people. Part 3 covers the start of our travels in Australia up to today. So, Part 1:

First things first, we travelled to New Zealand for the world cup so we have to mention it! New Zealand won, well done to them. But I think we can all safely agree that France were the better team and that Craig Joubere cost them the game by bottling penalty after penalty that should have gone France's way, and turning a blatant blind eye every time Richie McCaw cheated. But at least Wales didn't win it!

We got into the centre of Auckland about 2 hours before kick off to find every bar absolutely rammed, the atmosphere was absolutely incredible. We managed to squeeze ourselves into a cafe attached to a bar and got in a few inflated price beers, before alienating all around us by chanting allez les blue, talking as loud as we could about how Richie cheats and Kaino is wildly overrated, and totting up scores of who is best in a position by position comparison to be 11-4 to France (We gave New Zealand Nonu, Conrad Smith, Dagg, and Woodcock I think). The game was awesome, and the place went nuts on the final whistle. Tom refused to watch Richie lift the cup so as they were going up for the presentation we chose to leave. Turns out that was a huge mistake! The main street was chocker with people; every bar was at capacity and queuing down the street.

So we ended up wandering around, I sold my shoes to a girl who had lost hers for 40 dollars (bought them for 5 pounds from Primark so result), and we eventually joined what looked like the smallest queue we could see, in the true English fashion of not really knowing what it was for. 10 minutes later, we got inside, ordered and miraculously found a table.

Let me tell you now, that double bacon cheeseburger was the best I've ever tasted!

On the Monday we handed back in our campervan. We were sad to see it go, but realised 4 hours later after booking into a hostel that we could have a shower any time we wanted, and that finally we would have a proper bed for an extended period of time. Since, we have discussed whether the van was all worth it. The answer was a resounding yes, as despite the uncomfortable sleeping arrangement, the 6 weeks of cooking meals solely with the aid of a frying pan and a slab of butter (fyi oven chips and pizzas can indeed be fried), the close proximity, and the many cold mornings in South Island, we saw more of New Zealand than we could on any bus trips and driving in such an awesome place is a lot of fun in itself (especially when listening to Bob Marley's greatest hits, which we essentially listened to non-stop for 6 weeks as it's the only CD we bought that wasn't a "Now" something).

The week that followed was an opportunity for me and Tom to refresh and wind-down. Tom stayed in Auckland (in his words where he "enjoyed the culture" I think that translates to beer tasting and meeting travelling girls), and I travelled over to Bay of Islands. My travels included a brief stay in Hamilton (nice park) and Tauranga (nice half sunk oil tanker) before travelling on via Thames (nice falice shaped WW1 memorial) to Coromandel (no Subway! see part 2). The hostel in Coromandel provided free mountain bike hire, so the following day I went for a cycle. Turns out Coromandel peninsula is rather mountainous! The views at the top were stunning and having lunch on a huge sandy cove on which I was the only person was pretty special.

The next week and we both travelled up and stayed the week with John and Kim (Tom's uncle and aunt). There we really had a chance to do nothing except read books, perfect backflips on the trampoline, order dominoes for lunch, and generally sleep a lot. On the Friday we went out for our last night in Auckland, starting of course at our favourite English bar drinking Katy cider and black sheep ale.

And then it was about time to leave! Armed with tuna mayonnaise sandwiches we went off the airport, where we spend our remaining kiwi on a KFC, made large because it was 2 dollars extra and we had 2.30 left. And then we left!

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