Blogs from Mount Eden, Auckland, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 6

Arrival: Thursday, February 7th, Day 2 or 3? Well after 18 Hours on one plane, 2 hours in Sydney Australia, 3 on another flight , and then another 2 hours going through customs, I arrived in Auckland, New Zealand on a sunny, warm Thursday afternoon. Now what exactly happened to Wednesday I don’t know, but as far as im concerned, ive travelled to the future. Ok maybe not, the entire voyage did take 24+ hours, but it is an odd concept losing a whole day. Although I didn’t seem to feel very jet lagged, yet. Word of advice, when traveling to other countries, be prepared to have the full customs search if you plan to bring a tent or hiking boots, like I did. Apparently they need to check for insects and fungus. To do this ... read more

Finally wrapping up the New Zealand portion of our year abroad in Guatemala... After bidding Karen, Dave, Noah and Ana farewell in the golden light of the sun setting over Hahei, we hightailed it out to Thames to overnight in a crappy little hotel so that we would be well positioned to 'do' Aukland in a day. Our plan was to play tourist for the day, sleep in some cheap airport hotel, and head on home early the next morning. And that's pretty much what we did. We made this final day easy by just driving around to a couple of main tourist places (as recommended by an Auckland gal we met in the boiling water at the Hot Water Beach in Hahei): One Tree Hill This is an urban park which I believe is a ... read more

It was so strange arriving in Auckland after South America. It felt really English, especially as it was raining! Being so similar to home made us feel quite homesick; we expected to see friends and family, but of course you weren't there! We soon perked up, however, when we tucked in to our first fry up for 4 months and the sight of Wagamama, our second home in London, was also rather reassuring. Appropriately enough, given the jetlag, our first outing in Auckland was to a coffee festival. Bruce first discovered 'Flat Whites' in a Kiwi coffee place in Soho and was eager to sample them in the land of their birth. He was not disappointed. Even though I don't like coffee, I really enjoyed the festival, because they had a competition where they had to ... read more

I have decided to put all the places in chunks as opposed to smaller blog posts. Whats up New Zealand! Everyone has been absolutely hospitable and extremely nice. It was so nice to be here. Auckland is amazing. The first day I was here I just loafed around really but I eventually walked around the city center to see what was going on. Auckland is a very beautiful city and they have the tallest tower in the south pacific ranging at 326 meters which is approximately 1069 ft. Inside this tower is a casino, hotel, movie theater and a whole bunch of upscale things. I sat in the casino and played some games. I lost like $35 american dollars, but it was fun and I met some really nice people. All of the casino workers were ... read more

I finished at the Kiwi orchard a few days so I have really just been lazing around generally. A few of us from the hostel went kayaking up the river that is at the bottom of the hostel a few days which was pretty cool and all importantly FREE. I have now found another job doing pretty much the same thing as before but at a different orchard this time. The place is called Orangewood orchards. Orangewood is a bit misleading as it is actually a kiwi orchard. What is so wrong with kiwi wood?! Anyhow not to worry. The job starts in late march early April, so between now and then I have decided to familiarise myself with a bit of the north island for a few weeks. I am not entirely sure whereabouts on ... read more