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Published: November 30th 2008
After nearly a whole year later than I planned I arrived in Auckland and have been able to catch up with my old school mate from Pewsey School, Dan. Since I was in Oz over a year ago Dan has been expecting me in Auckland but I have been pushing the date further and further back due to unforeseen circumstances. I told him I would be there in March, and then June, July etc I kept pushing back the date, I don’t know who was more impressed that I finally made it.
Dan lives just south of the center of the city in a really nice area called Mt Eden , he shares his house with 4 other people, Jamie, Gary (Weasel) and Andy of are from around where I live and one Irish girl called Elaine. They have had many visitors come over from England since being in Auckland, I think most of Burbage has been out at some time or another.
For the most part my time in Auckland has been spent trying to find jobs, I had spent days and days searching on the internet phoning people and going to job agencies, but just like back in
England, New Zealand is suffering with the global economy, so no one is wanting to taking on new staff. Also as I arrived in Auckland there was a national election and a new government took over which didn’t help either as that’s all up in the air.
The weather here has been really nice so much better than is was a couple of weeks previous when I was heading up from the South Island, we’ve been having some really nice sunny days and really feels like the summer is on its way!! Sorry England I know it’s getting cold back home and you really don’t want to hear that!
During one of this beautiful hot sunny days I decided to book myself on a boat trip and headed off to one of the islands out in the harbor known as Rangitoto, this island was formed around 500-600 years ago when a volcano erupted and after a number of eruptions the magma that was left now formed its own island. I took a lovely walk up to the top where I was greeted with some amazing views back over the incredible turquoise colour of the water to the city.
The view from Mt Eden
The Volcano behind Dan's houseThere were some amazing 360 degree views from the summit, also from here I was able to look into and walk around the huge crater which was pretty impressive. On the island were some very unique lava caves which formed when one section of lava solidified before the inner part flowing out and cause a cavity. Some of the lava caves were huge and I was able to walk through them and for a few minutes hid away from the baking sun as they were so nice and cool! I have seen a lot of caves before but these were very different from any other ones I have ever seen before as there haven’t been formed by water etc and as therefore very sharp and jiggered with very hard rock as supposed to limestone.
In and around the Auckland area there are around 50 volcanoes and where I was staying was in a very nice little place called Mt Eden which used to be a volcano too and as it was on 25 min walk from the house I walked up there a few times to sit in the sun and admire the views, it such a hard life
Cheers!
I can get used to this weather on my birthday keeping yourself occupied when you’re not working ha ha. From up here I was also able to walk around the crater which was a lot more visible than the one on Rangitoto.
Obviously catching up with Dan there was always going to be a lot of drinking and we did go off out a fare few times, including a very drunken trip to Hamilton, which was an experience. Dan, Andy and I headed to meet a family they have know there for quite a while and from the moment we walked in we were obligated to participate in their drinking games, this was a steep learning curve as there was any number of ways that could result in you ‘skulling the rest of your vessel’ (downing the rest of your bottle). Within the first few rounds I ended up downing 3 bottles of beer straight down one after another on top of the couple I had be drinking since I had arrived, since this was only about 3 o’clock in the afternoon I was severely starting to worry about making it to night fall let alone midnight or further. I was particularly worried as I had heard that many
things can happen to you if you fall asleep around this group of people I really didn’t want to pass out and have to experience it. I did however manage to last the distance and 12 hours of pretty hard drinking.
There were probably around 12 people playing the drinking games and within 3 hours we at totally filled a 40 gallon drum (the big ones that stand about 4 feet high!) with empty beer bottles.
Dan introduced me into one of the best fast food places every called nana’s roast, which was a small shop the does take away roast dinners for around 4 - 6 pounds!!! And it is one of the best things after a hangover, it tasted pretty good as well but still not quite as good as yours though Mart.
The last night out I had in Auckland was defiantly the best/worst, it was my birthday so everyone was on a mission from the start to get me as drunk as possible!!! I was really happy as I have never had such a sunny hot day to celebrate my birthday and even better there was a free festival on in Grey Lynn. So
all of us headed off out armed with a big crate of beer and sat in the middle of thousands of people and enjoyed the sun and music. I couldn’t get my head around it, it really didn’t feel like my birthday at all, I’m so used to being freezing cold at this time of the year.
We ended up staying most of the afternoon and a good old laugh and polished of a couple of crates of beer before heading back home to change and in my case sober up slightly as I was starting to really feel light headed and I knew it was just going to only gonna get worse as the we heading out into the city.
We first headed off to Fern’s house( Jamie’s girlfriend) were I had to have a few shots then they made me up to look a complete idiot and I hope that the pictures will never get out, but I already have a bad feeling that they’ll be on facebook before I post this!! But that’s all I’m gonna say about this lol!
From the moment I headed out everyone kept getting me shot after shot, I had everything from
pernod, vodka, sambuca to bloody awful shots laced with Tabasco!! I did handle it a whole lot better than I thought I would but did get thrown out of one of the pubs……………. for being too drunk apparently!!
I ended up having a great night and in true birthday style I have no idea when I got home, how I got home ha ha!
During my couple of weeks in Auckland I did do a few days work laboring for a marquee company, The bloke Justin who I was working for offered me a job, but it was 3.5 hours away from Auckland in a place called Rotorua, great news but I had to be there the day after my birthday. This involved me having to catch a bus there the following day after this mad night outand to say I wasn’t feeling well would have been an understatement, I thought there was going to be a couple of times that I might have to have stopped the bus to be ill, it was probably one of the worst bus journeys I have ever had, all the combinations of shots and drinks I had the previous evenings were defiantly
now taking their toll!
Well after having had a relaxing a fun time in Auckland catching up with mates, sitting in the sun and visiting volcanos, I am now back working full time doing as many hours as possible for the next couple of months so I can get back travelling again once I have saved some more money. Still cant get over how bad the wages are over here!!! But at least the summer is on its way so not long before i have a good tan - wahoo!!
So this may be my last travelblog for a couple of months until I get back touring the country again. Keep in touch!
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