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Photo 1
Me with Katie on my right and Sandy on my left at the top of one tree hill. After leaving Napier and saying a sad goodbye to Harma and the nice hostel owner Doug I set off up to Auckland to go and meet my brother in laws cousin Katie, who lives up there. We had been texting and emailing each other for a while and we were both looking forward to meeting each other. I got off the train to her work in Penrose and a lady approached me. I went to drop all my bags and give her a massive hug but then she said "are you Katies friend?' and then directed me across the road. Whoops I can't believe I nearly hugged Katies workmate by accident! I went across the road and met Katie and I knew instantly we were going to get on!
Katie's friend Sandy, who is also lovley came and picked us up and we went out for dinner and drinks at the local club. I met the neighbours Joy and Mike, Mike is from St Helens and even though he has lived here twenty eight years he is still really northern. They were really nice and we went back to theirs for B52 cocktails.
The next day Katie and I went for
Photo 2
The view from one tree hill a nice walk around and down to their local beach. On the way round we met two guys who had been fishing the day before and when we stopped for a chat they gave us two big red snapper fish. After we had been round to collect some firewood with the nice neighbours Jan and Dave, who are from Birmingham we went for a really nice coastal drive and had fish and chips for our lunch. Later that day we had a lamb roast dinner. It was the first roast I've had for over four months and it was amazing! Katie and Sandy both made me feel really at home and their house is warm, cozy and really homley. It was just so nice to be in a home in front of the fire with a glass of wine. The room that I stayed in was beautiful too and I had a nice big bed with an electric blanket. Jan & Dave came round for dinner and we had a few drinks and skyped my sister and her husband. It was a nice evening.
We were planning to go for a champagne harbour cruise the next morning as Katie and
Photo 3
Roman Re-enactment Group - Katie went up to ask them what they were doing and when they told her she didn't know what to say! ha ha Sandy have a boat but the weather wasn't good so we went out for a little walk and then had a cooked breakfast. We had the red snapper with eggs on toast - I've never had fish for breakfast before but it was really good and I made it myself the next day too. That day we went off out up One Tree Hill, a sacred mouri site. Some idiots chopped the tree down though so we just went and had a look at the stump! The views over Auckland were great. Then we went up Mount Eden to have a look at the crater as it is a volcano. Auckland is built on around fifty volcanos and not all of them are inactive, I wasn't worried though, the last one to erupt was Rangitoto and it was over six hundred years ago.
You would think I would be knackered after going up two hills in one day but going up mountains with Katie is a bit of a different experience to the usual way I go about it - she drove me up to the summits in her car and then drove me to the pub! ha ha I
Photo 4
The crater of Mt Eden - this photo was took in front of the sign that said "DO NOT GET IN THE CRATER" was in the pub with a glass of wine in my hand by half three! :-)
On the Monday Katie and Sandy went off to work and I had a brilliant day led in front of the TV, messing around on the internet and drinking lots of cups of tea. Katie text me to say "if your cold you can light the fire you know" but it's a log burning stove and I had horrible visions to them both coming back from work to a pile of charred rubble so I decided to give it a miss. I was nice and warm anyway! That night we went off to bingo along with Katie and Sandys friend Kay from work. She was really funny and I liked her a lot. I've got to say that Beachlands Bingo was the highlight of my trip to Auckland! It was such a good laugh and I really enjoyed it. When I got behind on my ticket and had to stop the caller to catch up Shirley from down the road said "ahh she's only young" ha ha then the caller dropped one of the balls and said "whoops I've just dropped one" I was
Photo 5
The view from Mt Eden laughing so much I couldn't concentrate on my ticket. I met some really lovley people and it was such a good laugh!
I was sad when it was time to leave Katie and Sandy. It was so nice to meet them and spend time with them and they looked after me and made me really welcome in their home. It's a nice feeling to have a little family over here that cares about me and vice versa. It makes me feel even more at home. I am going back up to see them and all the neighbours for a long weekend before I fly home on Monday 27th July. We are hopefully going to do the harbour cruise and we are going round to Joy and Mikes for a pot luck dinner, thats a jacob's join in English and a games night. I can't wait to see them all again. It will be such a nice way to end my trip here.
Katie dropped me off in the city and we said our goodbyes. My hostel Nomads Fat Camel was right in the heart of the red light district and it wasn't a nice hostel at all, I woudn't recommed
Photo 6
The trig point of Mount Eden, although you do feel like you've cheated a bit when you march up and touch it and you've just drove up the hill! it but then again most city hostels are bad so maybe it's the best of a bad bunch. It was a serious come down from the luxury of Beachlands anyway. I spent the day at the museum and I watched the mowri cultural show. It was really good and interesting and I finally got the see the haka - the mauri war dance. It is the dance that the All Blacks rugby team do before a match and it is really quite scary. They have their tongues out and stamp about and shout a lot. It is supposed to be so intimidating so that spiritually the war is already won once they perform the dance. It makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. I'd wanted to see it for ages, mind you Katie did it for me after a couple of wines when I got there and told her I'd not seen it yet and I really preferred that version!
The next morning I got on the Magic Bus and waved goodbye to Auckland for a while and set off to Rotorua and I will do a blog on that when I get chance.
Hope
Photo 7
The Beachlands Bingo Babes everyone is ok, thanks for reading my blogs!
Love Rach
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Mum
non-member comment
Nice one, Rach.
Looks like Katie's was a nice place to be for you to recharge those batteries. I'm glad you stayed with them it would be like being at home in a way. The Maori haka sounds interesting. Keep on -not long now till you are back with Momma.