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Published: February 7th 2008
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Waiheke Island
Sun, sun, sun! I arrived in Auckland on the 3rd February. I left Bangkok at 17.25 on the 2nd February and arrived 9 hours later at 6:25am in Sydney to change planes. It's reasonable to say I didn't sleep much and by the time I arrived in Auckland I was seriously battered! After the painfully slow baggage checks (New Zealand has one of the strictest airports in the world!), I finally got through to the exit of the airport. Something to eat was required and all I could see was a dirty Ronald McFonald's. I reluctantly ordered a McChicken Sandwich meal and got half way through the burger before I realised why I had stopped eating such shit - consequently throwing it in the bin!
So I got a shuttle to my hostel and settled in fairly well in a place called Parnell. Quite a posh area just out of town so the food was expensive and I never seemed to find the supermarket due to being out and about so had to pay for the take out (goddamn!) every night. I met a couple of German girls and it quickly became apparent that all the Germans seem to be out of Germany
Middle of Nowhere!
THIS IS THE REFRESHMENT STOP! at the moment. Even the Germans were getting sick of the sight of each other! Christine, Alexa and I went out into Auckland to see what an awful city it is. It's almost as if it doesn't know what it is; shops thrown in all over the place with no real structure. The Sky Tower from a distance at night looks pretty, up close it is an ugly slab of concrete with about as much charm and character as an Orc! Aside from that, we clambered on a ferry to Waiheke Island which was gorgeous even if a little arty for my tastes!
But after that I was bored of Auckland and decided to move up to the Bay of Islands to a nice little place called Paihia. I have spent so much time trying to figure out if I should buy a car or not as travel around New Zealand is not so great. Mainly you have to get a bus everywhere and this usually requires quite a distance. In the end I decided to wait until I have a job before I invest in a car which is annoying but at the same time - the sensible
Maori War Boat
Imagine seeing that coming at you with a load of meaty Maori's ready for blood! thing to do.
Next was 5 hours on a bus with a rather amusing bus driver (I couldn't work out if he was rude, bitter or trying to be funny). Once he had checked my name off the list he bluntly said "goodbye", which I was to understand meant "get on the f***in bus biatch". Later on a shed load of pensioners stood up foolishly believing that the stop was, in fact, the refreshment stop, until a voice boomed over the tannoy; "this is not the refreshment stop, we
do notify you
when there is a refreshment stop." I've never seen so many pensioners look so ashamed of themselves as they shuffled back to their seats, I almost shed a tear. When we arrived at the official refreshment stop most of us weren't sure if it was some sort of trick so that he could launch another scathing attack on the New Zealand Pensioners Front, but eventually he did alert us to the fact that this was indeed the refreshment stop and everyone let out a sigh of relief!
I stayed one night in a cool hostel and wished I hadn't booked to stay somewhere else as I had met a few nice people there. Then I went up to Waitanga Treaty House for a nose around. The Maori carvings are beautiful and just the sort of thing I like to go and look at so I enjoyed that. Then I walked down to the wharf where I boarded a cruise that would take in the sites of the Bay of Islands. It really made me realise what the rest of the world is doing to the planet. New Zealand has a population of 4 million, the UK around 59 million. New Zealand looks new; the greens are so vivid, the blues of the ocean so crisp. There is very little in the way of pollution here and everything looks like it was just made in a warehouse. I have never seen such natural beauty in all my life. Anyone that tells me climate change is not man made needs a bloody good kicking as well as a tour of New Zealand! You only have to come here and see what low pollution means - it means clean, green fields, beautiful oceans and untouched wildlife. As opposed to the UK's dirty water, grey, grey, grey and more grey, along with all the new cases of Asthma etc etc. What the UK's countryside used to have to offer is nothing in comparison to the stuff I have seen here. This is perfectly natural scenery that has been respected by the people who live here. Just imagine what that would mean if the rest of the world respected their parts of the planet just as much?
Anyway, enough of the preaching. I saw wild Dolphins racing alongside the boat and I have to say it was the most amazing thing I have ever seen in my life. It's almost as if the Dolphin is putting on a show just for you. They are beautiful, playful creatures and I am so glad that I got to see them in a natural environment. It truly was special and I will never forget it.
Tomorrow it's back to Auckland for one night before heading to smelly Rotorua for the thermal holes in the ground!
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El Bastarde
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Glad you are finding what you went looking for, and that you appreciate NZ's natural beauty. But remember, by handing money over to McDonalds corp, you are helping to erode another untouched corner of the planet. Vote with those dollars.