Blogs from Auckland, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 333

Well, our trip around the world has come to an end and we have arrived safe and sound back at home just in time for christmas. It took us about 22 hours to get from Auckland to Minneapolis. It was a long day but we got to do some time travelling. We left Auckland at 7:30 pm on Thursday Dec. 22 and arrived in Minneapolis 22 hours later at 5:30 pm on the same day - Dec.22 meaning we arrived in Minneapolis 2 hours before we left Auckland..funny to think about. The last bit of our time in New Zealand was spent at a secluded island an hour east of Auckland called Waiheke Island. We spent 4 nights/5days doing a lot of R&R on the beach. The weather was a bit temperamental and it would rain ... read more

My first New Zealand Christmas (and my first Christmas away from 'Home'!). ...but what a Christmas to remember! Becky and Clive (and Addison) were the perfect hosts! They invited the waifs and strays to have a full on NZ style Christmas spread! After exchanging pressies and eating ourselves silly we headed down to Long Bay to relax on the beach. To be honest I think I was having more fun than Addison when it came to building sand castles! We then headed home for dessert (NZ have a whole shop dedicated to Cheesecakes!) so of course I was in my element having my traditional 'christmas pud!' On boxing day, Kev and I played host to Matt and Chloe, having a BBQ out on the deck, some Christmas drinks and of course the compulsory Christmas board game! ... read more

Ok, I am actually writing this from Waikiki Hawaii, but I will make separate posts for each of the days that have gone so far… Sorry for the time delay, it has just taken me a while to finally get around to going to an internet café! Don't worry, we are still alive. You will notice that the date of this post is 25th December. Actually, the first half (while in NZ was the 27th December), but landed in Honolulu on the 26th December due to the date line. I needed to make this the 25th so the next post on the 26th came out at the right order. The night before leaving I was up until midnight trying to squeeze everything into my unusually huge suitcase. I’m sure I don’t have that many clothes however, ... read more

Hi guys, As most of you already know, I will be heading to the States for a month on 27th December with Shannon, Amanda and Sunita - arriving back on 24th January. I have been to the states before but this will be my first trip away with a bunch of friends so should be fun. This whole trip stemmed from a rather wishful thinking msn conversation with Sunita that went along the lines of "hey, lets have new years this year in Hawaii", "ha! yea, sure, lets do it" (half sarcastically). Somehow, it actually ended up happening, we also roped in Amanda and Shannon who were keen on the idea also. Since Sunita has already lived in California for a year, this "new years in Hawaii" idea then changed to "well, while we are up ... read more

Hi Guys Just a quick update as to our Auckland progress. After a couple of nice relaxing days doing not much other than the jet lag thing (reading till 5am seems to be the norm) we've finally got ourselves into gear and have just about got a car purchase sorted out. As a tomorrow we should be proud owners of a classy nissan (sorry to all the people we promised we would get a vee dub campervan but the economics and general stupidity of getting one couldn't be outweighed by the comedy value this time - it was a tough and teary decision). Anyway after we finally get it pushed through with all the accompanying paperwork we'll be heading southward spending one night at maybe taupo before at long last cru9ising into welly for christmas. One ... read more