NZ

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Return flights from Gold Coast to Auckland including a week's accomodation with brekky (yoghurt+banana+muffin) for around AU$500 was just impossible to pass up so here we go...

Arrival at midnight was no problem - we caught a minivan taxi (with 5 travelling together it was the cheapest option as the shuttle is $35 each I think) for about $75.

Our hotel (Bianco Off Queen) was just off Queen St (the main road) heading to K Road (a more diverse street) making it a great spot for us to base our adventures.

We started with a walk down Queen St to Cafe 1 where we picked up a bunch of brochures (with deals and vouchers as well as info and maps), nice coffee and a free Sim card (these are available from a couple of places and are an excellent offer from 2degrees however we found the phone we took with us was locked so ended up buying a NZ$29 phone also with 2degrees that had enough credit for the week of bookings and enquiries we made).

From there we went across to the little Saturday morning produce market in Aotea Square which has a friendly laid back vibe with bean bags on the lawn, live music and delicious food. We stocked up on olives, fetta, sundried tomato and fresh bread rolls whilst Wayne enjoyed the best ever sausage sandwich.

We jumped a bus ($1.90) to the zoo ($22) from Britomart. My favourite was the Kea bird I think - cheeky and clever and I'd never seen one before. Tasha liked the giraffe's because they were friends, Nic made sure we visited the orangutans and we all decided to give the Australian experience a miss. Our picnic lunch (from the markets) was really yummy.

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