Blogs from Albany, Auckland, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 4

Kia Ora (Maori for hello), so after searching the papers for a few days, we found what we are hoping is a good deal. we got a 1988 subaru leone wagon. we were a little scared to buy it from the guy, he seemed a bit sketchy, at first the car would not start because he claimed the inside light was left on all night. so we jumped it and took it for a drive, that was the good part, everything seemed to work just fine. after the battery charged it started again with a bit of work. thats the only thing we are a bit worried about, but for 670 NZ$ we can't complain too much. although it was supposed to be 650 according to the paper we saw, but he claimed it was 699 ... read more

Lots to write about since its been over a week since our first blog, we ran out of time in Hawaii to fill everyone in, so I’ll start there. It rained for about 4 days, and then was overcast and rainy, so we didn't get much sun until our last two days...go figure. We tried to go on what sounded like a really cool hike in the mountains that was going to take us to a mile long tunnel through the mountain that we could hike through that had formerly been used for irrigation. But unfortunately we needed 4-wheel drive to reach the trailhead and our whale of a beast ’86 Lincoln Town Car really wasn’t up for the challenge. So we had to settle for a different hike which wasn’t much to write about. Then ... read more

Hello, i am getting a bit behind with the old blogs so going to skip the rest of Aus and try and fill you in at a later date, and go straight to New Zealand otherwise i will never wirte another one again! I have just spent a brill week in Aukland staying with a couple of Irish guys who used to drink in the hotel every Saturday night who moved out here last year. Richard, Andrew and Laura live in a great house in Mount Eden Village not far from the City Centre - you can easily see why none of them want to move back to the lovely UK - they have a great life of beer and BBQ's and unfortunately a bit of work during the week, but they didnt seem to let ... read more

Well I had a day to just sight see in the city yesterday. I slept in which I haven't done much on this vacation. Then got up and went walking around downtown. Had to stop at Starbucks because its the only coffee shop in NZ where you can get a real cup of coffee for a reasonable price. I'll have a double tall Mocha. Instead of I'll have a micro sized "Flat White" that costs $3.50. You'd have to drink 3 of them to get one 12 oz Starbucks equivalent. Yes, I'm a coffee snob from Seattle (o: Anyway, after looking through downtown I pulled my bike out and went out the waterfront trail. I had ridden that trail to a suburb called Mission Bay when I first arrived. Today the weather was beautiful so I ... read more

2 Norwegians in the backpacker's answer our advert to share the cost of hiring a car for a few weeks, however we find that there are no cars anywhere at such short notice. In fact by now we had decided to go by bus anyway, at least on the North Island. We booked with Kiwi Traveller's hop-on-hop-off bus from Auckland to Wellington, a bargain at 105 New Zealand Dollars. We went to the Auckland Museum to learn more about Maori and foreign influence and history of Auckland and New Zealand as a whole. But particularly I wanted to see the temporary exhibition of Leonardo Da Vinci's machines; wooden models which had been made from his own sketches and may well have been made in his own lifetime. Some were fascinating particularly the robot and multi-turreted tank. ... read more