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Published: November 9th 2008
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Aukland history
if you really look hard in Akl you can find some really intresting stuff Sarah and i had had a long chat about us going all the way to the top, to 90 mile beach, which isn't actually 90 miles but is very long, but to get there you must go on a off road track full of pot holes and wondering sheep, and i had put up a big enough argument to insist that there was no way my car was going to make it on this road and i was not going to let her take my car without me being in it...so for the first time on the trip i won the argument and we didn't go, we just went up to a nice little town of Paihai where just over the water is Waitangi which is where the Maoirs and the British signed the contract of Waitangi to have the British protect the native people from the French who were trying to get involved with the islands. Paihai is a thriving place in the summer time, all the Auckland folk go up there on the weekends, and things stay open 24/7 just racking it in...but as the season was coming to a close things were kinda quite and lots of the
the locals
Only the Japanese shops and cafes were closing up for the winter and getting their sail boats ready to go off to the Pacific Islands for 3 months, and then do the summer all over again ...nice life. Sarah and i stayed at the Pickled parrot backpackers and then moved to the mousetrap as it was nicer and felt better being there...the town was tres pretty and on the water so lots of sunbathing going on. The walk over to Waitangi only takes half an hours but is very nice and lots of things to see. Waitangi is only literally the house were the meeting was held and the contract was signed, but there is a good documentary about the signing and the house has been kept in the traditional style, with both British and Maoir buildings and influences.
Sarah tried to convince me to get a boat over to a island and do some walking, but as the ferry ride was expensive and i am not the loaded sister i had to decline...even after 4 weeks together she was still not realising that i just can not afford to do every fun thing there is to do...so we mooched on back
akl
sunset in akl western lands to the hostel, made some nice dinner, i got speaking with a older woman from Canada who was a pilot up in the very north of Canada delivering supplies to tiny hamlets and teaching indigenous kids in 5 pax class rooms..amazing...make one feel like they really should be doing bigger better things with their time. But i liked speaking with her, and later on a even found a great book i had read in Thailand and Malaysia and gave it to Sarah and forced her to read it..." the abortionist's daughter".
We came on back to Auckland after Paihai as time was running out for the big sister and her travels, we found a really nice hostel in the eastern suburbs which was kinda like the Villa hostel i have been working at, a big old ish home that has been converted into a hostel. The place was nice and even with the scary rude Israelis we had a nice last night there. We headed off into the CBD and to eat Mexican food, watch the new Indiana Jones movies, Sarah complained to the usher that it was too cold in the cinema, which it was but she managed
Nz
Kumura chups and hot chocolate in Rortura...not bad to get our popcorn and drinks refunded to make up for it. We wondered back on the one of the only buses in Auckland, which stops at 7pm!!!! and had our last night in NZ together. The next day it was planned that she would go to the airport on her own, as the shuttle was kinda expensive, but i changed my mind in the morning, as i knew i would never heard the end of how i left her alone to fend for herself in the wildy wild of Auckland airport...so off we went in the morning, as we sat in the shuttle bus, i picked up a paper that was already in there to, you know maybe to read a bit of the news about the rest of the world, and Sarah snatches the paper off me, and says that i can not read it and i must give her all my attention as she is nearly leaving the country and she is the only one who has come all this way too see me...it never ends.
So with all my attention we made it too the airport and checked her in, she was told her flight
Nz
looking out at the end of the world was delayed by a bit but not to worry as it still gave her enough connecting time in Sydney to get her next flight to Bangkok and then London, so we wondered off seeing that her gate was not up on the telly yet...had some weird breakfast, looked at some tacky Kiwi souvenir shops, sat in a pub and drank expensive rubbish kiwi beer. Played cards which i let her win, anything to keep the peace. Then looked again to see if the gate was up, not yet so we wondered on back to the QF desk to see what was happening, they said she had been delayed once more, but could make the next flight leaving Sydney, and if she couldn't get on these flights then she could have one night in a hotel in Sydney and then be put on a flight the next day....at this point Sarah was going a funny colour and started shouting at the QF woman, i decided with all my years in travel i would take over and carm the situation down, so i took over and carmed it all down. She was put on the next flight and i heard from her
nz
young Nick pointing to land, for Cook and the rest of his crew in Gisbourne when she got back to the UK, she did miss her connecting flight but was put on the next flight, which didn't have her Veggie meal booked on!!! she told me she was planning on writting a strongly worded letter to QF to complain about this wounding that was done too her.
I then decided to stay on in AKL for the next week, staying in a 3 share dorm room, with a cool Sommerset boy, who played songs on his gitaur long into the night, me and him hid from the weird South African guys who told me that i was too old to be traveling around and should be settled down by now and wondered where my husband and kids were, i told him they were just waiting for me. I kinda liked staying in Auckland, but even though the city is one of the largest in the world, it is just a CBD and then like 10 miles of suburbs. There seemed nothing really happening in AKL and i found it very hard to actually find things happening and going on, and there wasn't just a good vibe of the place, so after milling around and
nz
Napier, the town still stuck in the 1930's....art deco all the way wondering what to do, i just packed up one day and moved on down the country and drove to the little seaside town of raglan, a famous surf town, where all they do is surf.
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