Arrived Safely in NZ!

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Hey everyone, or should i say 'kia ora' now?! (maori for hello!)
so we had a sad farwell from melbourne!
We had the dance awards on the Saturday night where Patrycia got her ballroom dance award (she got an honours which is between 95-100%-so pretty damn amazing!) She did about a minute of dancing with everyone watching, she did the marrangie (or however you spell it!) She also won an award for most improvement in her area and has been selected as a nominee for best improver of the year... We were all so proud! Had wine and nibbles whilst watching. Everyone was SOOOOOOO glammed up, in full ballgowns and everything, and they had the belle of the ball pagent so everyone has studying everyone (AKA bitching, hehe!) I felt very underdressed but luckily brought a black and white dress with me. James only had jeans and converses so had to borrow trousers and shoes from Alistar (Patrycia's boyfriend, both of which were too big for him! It was a good evening.
The next day (sunday) we went to the Yarra Valley which is the wine region of Melbourne. We only had time to see one vineyard as we woke up late and it all shut at 5 cos it was a sunday, but one was enough cos we tasted all the wines and were getting quite merry! Brought a bottle of wine for Zig&Teresa (Patyrcia's mum and dad) and a bottle for Patrycia, also got Zig and Tresea a bunch of flowers. Got Edyta (patrycia's sister) a box of chocolates. And a card for them all. They were all so lovely. Anyway the Yarra Valley was gorgeous, very picturesque. We went to Blockbusters after and got the office (english one of course!) and a french/spanish movie called the apartment which was really good. Then we went to sleep as our flight yesterday (mon) was at 10.55am but we had to get the bus to the airport at 6.25am! Zig dropped us off at the bus stop which was lovely, and we got the bus to the airport and got our flight to auckland, new zealand. I watched The History Boys on the flight, James watched a film called Breach.
We got to Auckland and it was two hours ahead, so 4ish, then by the time we got to our hostel it was 6ish, everywhere seemed so dead, all the shops shut at 5ish. Anyway we were tired but wanted to make the most of our time here so we went to the main attraction of Auckland which is the Skytower. Its really tall, 8m taller than the effiel tower, its all made of concrete, it can sway upto a metre at the top in high winds. Within the tower there is a revolving resturant, casino, hotel, theatre and cafes. We went to the main observation desk, it was nice, quite romantic and gives you great views.
Today we were meant to wake up at 9, james set the alarm for 9, but forgot to change the phone clock, so it was actually 11, bit annoying as it kinda messed up our day a bit. Anyway james went for a run and brought us back breakfast from Dunkin Doughnuts (me and james nearly died when we saw it again, and how close it was to our hostel, just like new york Trisha!!!!) and then went to Auckland Museum by a tourist bus that does a loop of the city, we missed the Maori tribal dancing cos we woke up late, but hopefully we'll be able to see it on our travels. Museum was pretty good, lots of difference exhibitions, including on on volcanos and what would happen if a volcano hit auckland, quite scary! We then came back to the city and looked round a bit, had dinner in a lovely mexican place and we are now online whilst our washing is on!
Tomorrow we pick up the campervan, james is revising the new zealand highway code online as we speak! as well as watching the wimbledon highlights (of course!)
Not sure how much we'll be able to get online whilst 'on the road' but hopefully quite a lot.
Hope all is good with everyone,
Love H&J xx

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