Not too bad!

---

Greetings from Auckland NZ

We've had quite a few lazy days here. The weather is really nice around the mid 20s (celcius). We're now 13 hours ahead of you all in the UK, the first in the world to see a new day! Our first day was laundry day trying to wash all the sand out of our clothes. The hostel includes a free meal each night though it's worth "supersizing" for $4 for a decent portion. It's meant we can be pretty lazy at night in terms of cooking. We got a free city tour for the next day from stray (who we'll be travelling through NZ with). This took us out of the main city centre (where we're staying at the Fat Camel hostel) and around some of the areas of interest. Auckland is pretty lumpy due to about 48 now dormant volcanoes around the city. We got taken to the tallest one on the mainland, Mt Eden for some really good views of the city. We also went to the Sky Tower which is Auckland's answer to the CN tower. In true Kiwi fashion you can jump off the top of it in a controlled freefall. One guy on our bus got chosen at random for a free jump but we didn't fancy paying for it. We also visited the viaduct basin which was developed for the America's cup (sailing competition.) Some very expensive yachts and apartments. As it's currently the busker festival we mainly watched a canadian play with fire and make bad jokes. "Not too bad", this phrase is used a lot here to say something's good. You have to say it with a kiwi accent to sell it though. We got taken to a pub for lunch where we tried kumara fries. They're chips made from sweet potatoes served with sour cream, VERY tasty. We also wanted to arrange a trip up further north so we did some shopping around, booked to go tuesday (Waitangi day) and paid to stay at the Fat Camel until then to avoid cooking.

Saturday we wondered back to the sky tower, found the cinema, bought ferry tickets for Rangitoto and found the swimming baths. The baths are really good and cheap, 2GBP for a swim, sauna, steam and spa. Sunday we were up early to get a ferry at 9am to Rangitoto (means blood red sky in Maori). It's an island created by a volcano erupting only 600 years ago making it the youngest in the area. The walk up to the summit took about an hour. It was less steep than our hike in Fiji but the igneous rock is pretty loose so you have to watch your step. You can jump in this vehicle of sorts for a tour to get most of the way up but that's just plain lazy. Once up at the top the views are even better than Mt Eden. We also walked around the crater but sadly there's no lava to see, in fact it's full of trees! We then took a walk to the lava caves which was pretty confusing as at each fork in the path the sign either pointed both ways or down the lesser walked track. We found them though, you can walk through them but we saw too many cobwebs about to fancy tring it. We took our time coming back down and did some other walks before eating our well earnt sandwiches.

Monday we didn't do much other than another visit to the swimming baths (I insisted) and then sorting out our bags for our trip further North the next day. We also treated ourselves to some wine as it was only 3GBP for a bottle of Jacob's Creek Chardonnay Pinot Noir.

We were up early tuesday for our trip to the North to stop in Paihia travelling on a "magic" bus. We had a few stops on the way, first the Kauri museum. Before I go on I should explain that Kauris are MASSIVE trees. A lot were used to make masts of ships. We then went to a kauri forest to see Tane Mahuta (God of the Forest) which is some 50 metres high, about 13 metres trunk girth and around 2000 years old! At this point it had started raining, we were expecting this before we got to NZ but as it had been really nice the previous 5 days it come as a bit of a shock. By the time we got to Paihia it was really coming down. But I'm jumping ahead, we had a quick stop in a town called Opononi & watched a short video about a "gay" dolphin called Opo. In 1955, Opo began following local fishing boats and started plaing with locals in the harbour. Hence they called her the happy or "gay" dolphin. This was the first time a dolphin had started to do this. Unfortunately Opo died a year later. So back to Paihia, we checked into our 7 person dorm and went out for a walk but got caught in more heavy showers. Drenched, we found a sheltered shopping centre. As it was Waitangi day (6th Feb) which is a public holiday not a lot was open. We did find a really nice chip shop to get fish and chips, which I must say is better than any I've had before in the UK Harry Ramsdens included. Back at the hostel , due to th ebad weather most people were either in their dorms or in the common room watching American Psycho, not too bad. All over the hostel were signs about not being noisy after 11pm so we thought we'd get a reasonable night's sleep. How wrong were! The common room may have closed at 11 but people then carried on drinking until 2.30am in the morning. Having finally got to sleep a couple of noisy German guys then invaded our room (well it was theirs as well) at 5.30 and woke us up and carried on talking. I forgot to mention that we had to be up at 6.15 in order for us to get to Cape Reigna (the very top of NZ). We got to the bus anyway and "lucky" for us it was hammering it down AGAIN. On the way up we had a stop at a really nice (and cheap) pie and sandwich shop where we loaded up for the day. All teh way up to Ninety Mile beach it was still raining harder and harder. We should've seen what was coming... The bus driver announced that the Te Paki stream had flooded which we needed to cross. Also the bridge on the main road was also not safe to use.So we couldn't get there! We also had some fun turning around as we were in convoy with 2 other coaches and one got stuck in the sand. After watching it get pulled back out we set off back to Paihia early and got half our money back. Looking back now it was a bit of an adventure and pretty funny. We decided to do something cultural in Paihia so we risked a half hour walk to Waitangi treaty grounds. This was where on the 6th feb 1840 a treaty was signed between the Maori and the British making New Zealand part of the Empire. They've got a really impressive Maori war canoe there, a period house where a British Governer lived, a Maori meeting house built on the hundred year anniversary of the treaty and we watched a video about teh founding of New Zealand. Despite the hostel's kitchen being a mess we decided to cook pasta, watched tv and prepared ourselves for another sleepless night. Fortunately, this time everything was quiet by 11.30 and we got a good night's sleep.

Another early start the next day, 7.15 am to go for a Dolphin/Island cruise. At last the sun was back out! Around Paihia, it is known as the Bay of Islands as there are over 100 of them. We got some seats up top ready for anything with our waterproofs at the ready wearing sunglasses and sun block. The sea was pretty choppy (big swells) but pretty quickly after seeing some islands we spotted dolphins and went in for a closer look. It's suprising how close they come but everytime you attempt to take a photo you get their tail end at best. We then went up to Percie's island also known as "Hole in the Rock". This ingenious naming comes from the fact that it is a big rock and wait for it... there is a hole in it! When less choppy you can go through it but it was really rough so the captain had said no. A guy to the right of us was sick, lovely. Though tempted I didn't take a photo. After getting back to the hostel (without spewing) we had a quick snack before jumping back onto our magic bus to take us back to the Fat Camel in Auckland. Once back we were in bed pretty early and slept for about 10 hours (Debbie slept for 12!). Today we've not done too much other than planning the rest of New Zealand and bought some odds and ends ready for our start with Stray tomorrow at 7.45.

Thanks for reading.

---

Photos

Top of Mount Eden
Cheaper than the sky tower and better views

Auckland Skyline
Nice

Rangitoto
Not too hard work for good views.

Deb in a Cave
Our hostel was more cosy.

Mike Walkin on Rangitoto
Look at me go

Deb in a Kauri Chair
I am a tree, or is it that I'm just in one.

It's a floater
I was not responsible for this log, honestly.

Deb and Tree
We've got the picture now make like a tree and leave.

Mike and Tree
Some say everywhere you go always take the weather with you. Not good advice to someone from Manchester...

Deb and Statue
Debbie's pulled again, this time in the meeting house at the Waitangi Treaty grounds.

Dolphin Alert
So close...

Hole in the Rock
Does exactly what it say's on the tin.

Comments

[Simon Thomas]

Greetiing from the UK
Glad to hear you are both doing well, it's like the 21st Century slide show !!!! Take care and see you in Hawarden later this year