Blogs from Devonport, Auckland, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 5

Getting ready to go OK, I have a travelblog now... Next step is to figure out how to use it in the 22 sleeps before I go! As it turned out the Info Systems uni paper which included learning basic HTML may actually come in useful. Who said formal education didn't teach anything practical? I know the map is a massively zoomed in version just showing where I am right now, but I'm told when I start adding new places it will zoom out and be normal... ... read more

Hello, finally it's my last day in Auckland, and I'm glad. Because I think I've seen everything now (several times)! Friday I met a german girl in the hostel, and we went for a drink together. What started liked a relaxed quiet evening, ended up in a very absurd party night! Pictures will be added later... Today I went to Devonport (other side of the harbour). I did a walk on two extinct volcanoes. It was nice, but not stunning.. Anyhow, today arrives Marian (Antwerp) and tomorrow we leave together to the antara retreat, where we will work for a week! Let's see. ... read more

For Avery's birthday, we bought her a ticket to see Linkin Park in concert in Auckland. Avery was planning on going with a friend (Vicki) and her chaperone and fellow Linkin Park fan, Victor. I thought I would tag along. As with any major trip, we first headed over the hill to Christchurch. Both Avery and Vicki were quite nauseated and we had to pull over a couple of times to avoid an "in-car" incident. While I am sure that my driving is partly to blame, the high centre of gravity on the Land Cruiser isn't helping. After a quick meal we caught Hair Spray at the movie theatre. It was a surprisingly good and almost perfectly cast movie. John Travolta's performance as Edna Turnblad was spectacular (particularly in the scene where he is dancing with ... read more

We've had one wet and one dry day here in Auckland. Yesterday we went up the Sky Tower, the tallest building in the Southern hemishpere, which we can see from the window of the YHA. It's a great way to see the city if you don't have long to look around it. We watched people doing skydiving from the tower, Catherine thinks she'd like to do it, but the rest of us were happy to drink coffee and watch others. We got our moneys worth out of our visit to the Maritime museum, in fact we returned today to see more of the galleries and exhibits. On our way to Auckland we had a sociable couple of days visiting friends or relatives of friends and receiving excellent kiwi hospitality in both Tauranga and Whiritoa beach. Tomorrow ... read more