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Published: November 15th 2009
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Hello! I've had a sort of busy time since I last posted. I think that was Wednesday, so quick summary since then. A group of us went up the Sky Tower in the evening, highest building in the southern hemisphere I'm told, think it's 192m high. Awesome views out over Auckland. Came back to the hostel and got Dominos pizza between about 9 of us, nice. Thursday was the first really nice day, we went to this small park and just hung about for a while. Hopefully the weather is going to keep that up. It's still just the end of spring here, summer starts beginning of December. Gonna be using a lot of suncream, highest rate of skin cancer in the world over here. We watched a Kiwi film at the IEP centre in the evening and they bought us in burgers and chips, got myself some Kumara fries - basically sweet potatoe, delicious!
So, I woke up on Friday starting to feel a bit like I wasn't sure at all what I was doing. Started to totally doubt staying in Auckland. 3 of the guys that I'm getting on really well with - Amie, Steph and Louis -
had booked the full Kiwi Experience bus. This is basically a bus pass for the entire country, however it's not just a bus from A-B, they stop of at loads of places along the way and you get to see a lot more of New Zealand. The pass lasts for 12 months from when you start and you can reapeat it is much as you like, and cause they bought the whole package it doesn't matter where you get on or off. And you can get off as much as you like and stay as long as you like in any place. So I started thinking this was a good idea as I could see the country first before deciding where to stay for a bit. Anyway, by the end of Friday, after speaking to mum and dad and spending the day doing a free Auckland tour with those guys I new it was what I wanted to do. So I've booked it now and I am so much happier about everything, it's such a relief!! I feel so much more relaxed now, I'm really glad! I get on really well with Amie, Steph and Louis so it's great, plus
Steph and Louis are from Inverness so that's an added bonus, and I'm sure some of you can appreciate how much I like that accent!
Anyway, that's that sorted. We should be heading off Tuesday or Wednesday, just waiting on credit cards and money and that sort of thing. I've also got to sort out transfering money, not as easy as you would have thought, plus the added problem of a 13 hour time difference for doing things over the phone! Need to get fruit picking added to my insurance as well as I expect we will be doing a lot of that! We are going to be heading North first, to the Bay of Islands and other places up that way, think we will spend a while up there, try and get something organised for Christmas! Can leave a lot of the stuff we don't need at the IEP office so that's gonna be great!
I see I'm going on a bit again, but I have to tell you about our bus tour of Auckland. It was good to get away from the main street where it seems we've spent most of our time. We saw a
few of the key landmarks and in the afternoon got to walk the Auckland Harbour Bridge for free. You can do a bugee jump from the middle as well, it's only 40m and I wish I'd done it now cause it didn't look that scary at all - well it didn't to me... One of the guys in our group - Gabe did it. He just went for it, very impressive. However, as we were getting ready to head off these guys brought in this massive 6'2 guy, blindfolded. They got him in his gear and then took his blind fold off - he was not happy. Turns out this was one of New Zealands massive rugby players and he was on his stagg do. His name is Manu Vatuvei and he is build like a tank, 112kg pure muscle. You need to google him to see how massive he is. Anyway, all the way along the bridge he was looking straight ahead, not looking to the side at all. Totally not up for it, when we got up to the bungee he wasn't getting up and when they eventually got him up he was totally terrified. This was definately
one of the funniest moments of my life! They eventually got him to the edge and he would not let go of the instructor, totally gripping on for his life. The instructor was like, please let go mate... So funny! Anyway, he eventually let go and pretty much bungeed in the fetal position. Highly entertaining. Now we are all Warriors fans, we might go to a game with some poster about bungee jumping, maybe not though, don't think that would be motivational. Think he killed his mates afterwards.
So, I've gone on for ages! There's only 6 out of 20 of us left in the original hostel now. Went back to the park yesterday and walked down to the harbour, which goes on for ever really - on two oceans you know. Today we went to the museum and wandered around, pretty cool. I'm in a room with Amie, Steph, Louis, Claire and Anthony now which had en-suit and a TV. Good times!
Right, gonna stop boring you know. I do hope that these blogs are going to get a lot shorter as I go on cause I know it's not always that easy to read them! Keep
your fingers crossed!
I meant to say at the end of my last blog that I was in desperate need of a hug, thanks for all the messages guys. Really cheered me up and now I'm all sorted now and since I got my $2 calls home and made use of them, not such a dire need for the hug! I'd still take one tho, obviously! Miss you loads, missing some people a ridiculous amount, sob! You know who you are!
Love you all forever!
Charlotte xxx
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Beka
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Bunac?
Hey Charlotte! Looks like you're having a great time. Just wondering if you were doing this travel through Bunac and if you were what you thought about it so far? I am planning on doing in next September. Enjoy NZ!