New Zealand Roadtrip

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Day 32 - Monday 21st May 2007

Up at 8 today....well actually we didn't get out of be d till 8.30! After breakfast and cleaning up the caravan etc went and did the dirty job of emptying the waste ready to return the van later that evening. This nice funny man was washing all the bird poo (loads of ducks and pukeka?s around the site!!) off the drive way, and filled up our water with the hose...he also decided to give our van a bit of a wash when we had the window open a bit. Oh and through all this, sar was hiding in the bathroom, trying to peek out of the tiny window now and again to see what was going on!..had to keep telling her to get back in!!

Left the site to head to Nikki's cousins. Stopped on the way at a shopping centre so nik could find a gift for her cousins 6 week baby and to put her photos on to cd so she had some room for photos of her new baby cousin!! Nik drove us on to her cousins from there using directions we had been given...howeverr one or two roundabouts missing so it took a couple of attempts! he he! Once we reached the desired location we parked on the roadside at the top of their VERY STEEP drive!!! Cool drive with big trees, tree ferns etc eitherside and a few other houses on the way down. Would hate to walk down there after a night out in heels!! Their cool house is located right on the edge of a scrub/forest? reserve...trres right up to the house, pretty cool!! It was for Nikki to see her cousins again and took photos of her holding her new little boy cousin. He is soo cute and lovely! Nikki's cousins- *********(oops forgot!) and Kate and Kate's mum who was staying with them from Hastings were really nice and friendly, lovely to meet them!

After we had visited her cousins, we left to drop the car to the airport. However, once we got to the airport area, we weren't actually sure where we had to drop it!!!! They didn't tell us that for some reason!! Once we had found the place it was only just 5.15ish not bad...only 1/4 hr late! Nik and Gem went in to say we had arrived and to let them know our several complaints about the van.....The broken water pipe, the lack of water even when we filled the tank full...some fault! the mouse droppings sar found the first night which she cleared up and found more over several days...! The broken window seals, the very damp bed in the roof..when you got into bed at night the sheets were wet!...They gave us an email address to write to to complain........Ohm we forgot the very crap and breaking windscreen wipers!!

Anyway, we cleared our stuff out of the van ready for our next jounerys! We said our goodbyes and Nik left the depot in a car to be driven to catch a bus to the airport for her flight home. It was strange for her to be leaving without us (sar and gem). We will miss her in our further journeying...it will be very quiet without her! Amz, Sar and Gem got a taxi for $25 to a hostel in Auckalnd. The nice lady taxi driver called from her mobile and let us book the hostel from the car. The hostel was City Groove Backpackers on Constitution Hill! It wasn't half up a steep hill! It was a cool little place but putang...(ha ha funny jay!geddit?)..It didn't half smell!! It had been pouring with rain for the evening and was absolutely bucketing down when we arrived! We were in a female dorm of 6 beds. Nearly full that night (5). Had tea and just sat in the lounge for a bit writing, reading and playing cards.


Day 33 - Tuesday 22nd May 2007

Left the hostel around 10 and walked through Albert Park into town. Sar needed to go to the bank to get abit of money out. Most of the day, we just wandered round town, having a look and doing a bit of window shopping...actually sar did buy a cap and we bought a cookie each!! Gem and sar got their photos put onto cd..actually dvd..too big for cd!

Visited an art gallery which was really nice for a change, it was quite small though.

Back at the hostel we made tea and played cards for a while before heading off to bed for an early night. Amz needed one as she was leaving at 4am the next day!!!


Day 34 - Wednesday 23rd May 2007

Briefly said goodbye to amz (well gem did anyway...briefly woke from sleep if you can say that!), sar got up to say goodbye. The taxi was early though, banging at the door, amz was just ready!

When we woke up it was strange that amy had also left!...like a thief in the night..! It was absolutely pouring with rain today!!!! We left the hostel and walked down to the road below the hostel with all the car hire places on. We walked in and out of quite a few to get a load of quotes. Booked with Backpacker cars (part of Apex) in the end. Car ready to pick up tomorrow!! After this was sorted we wanderd into town. Drizzling by this point so not too bad!

Went up the sky Tower!!! Cool! Although the weather wasn't too good, we still had fairly good visibility. Scary bits of glass floor in places...arg!! Saw all the way down to ground level! Oh, the lift up was quite cool too as there were intermittent views out over the city. There was also some glass in the floor of the lift so you could see all the way down the lift shaft!

Back in the main street we updated our weblog which took a long time! It was still not up to date though. Some stupid person knocked the power plug out so we lost a load of the stuff we were working on! The next time, the internet went down so we lost another day.. argh!! Also booked the ferry crossing for the return to the south island.

Walked back to the hostel around 7ish- oops, gem started to take them the wrong way initially until sar redirected!! Just used up whatever we could for tea, quite tired! Sorted out our bags for the morning and read in bed before falling asleep around 11pm!

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