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Published: September 16th 2007
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AUCKLAND
Me at the harbour My arrival in New Zealand had a strange feel to it. My flight here was at 4.40am on Tuesday morning but when i arrived here after only a 4 hour flight it was lunchtime on the Wednesday. I didnt see Tuesday at all, just skipped right over it. I wouldnt like to be travelling here on my birthday, it just wouldnt exist. Still cant get my head round this. Anyway from what i could see flying in New Zealand looks a lot like Scotland. Although just a bit more dramatic. Auckland is just like any other city. Their main street is Queen Street and has most of the same shops that you would find back home. I am in shock at the change in temperature. I cant believe how cold it is!! I have had to go shopping and buy a fleece, gloves, scarf and jeans. I have gotten too used the good weather over the past 2 months!!
When i first arrived in the city i went for lunch as i hadnt eaten. On coming out of the pub i found the streets to be heaving with peopleand they all had their cameras out although no one could tell
me what was happening. There were lots of police and press around. I soon found out that there was an Erotica Parade on and all of a sudden loads of vehicles came down Queen Street with lots of naked women in them. I couldnt believe my eyes as it was only 1pm in the afternoon! They women were all ages and shapes and sizes. There were also some transvestites. Ive put a photo of them on simply as they are wearing clothes, i couldnt put the other photos on this site as im not allowed to upload any nudity :-) There were a lot of people protesting with banners saying things like "boobs on bikes are degrading to women". I dont think we would see a parade like that going down Queen Street in Glasgow!
I went up the Sky Tower which is the tallest building in the southern hemisphere apparently, standing at 328 metres tall. It has gorgeous 360' views of Auckland. They have the sky jump from here which i was considering but chickened out in the end up. The viewing levels at the top have glass floors in parts and i could hardly bring myself to
Auckland
Sky Tower walk over them never mind jump off the thing, even though they say the glass is stronger than the concrete that you stand on up there. You can see from the photo how small the cars look all the way down there!
Ive met a couple of great girls in my hostel. Irene from Ireland and Jen from London. Irene has just arrived, she is here for 1 month then heading over to Australia. The 3 of us took the ferry trip over to Rangitioto Island. Its a volcanic island only 600 years old which is young for a volcano. We hiked to the top and back which took us about 2 hours. Jen had tickets to a gig tonight, a New Zealand band called Rhombus so Irene and I went along for a night out. We had a good laugh but ended up drunk and tired!
Jen flew out today to Fiji. Another lovely girl Jenny from Sweden has joined our dorm. We took a free day trip round Auckland to see the main sights which was interesting. We drove to the top of Mount Eden where we got out for a walk about. We could look
Auckland
Auckland skyline into the crater but its covered completely in grass now although they say it might blow again one day. Our guide told us a funny story actually. A few college students drove up in the middle of the night with a car full of old tyres and set them alight in the middle of the crater. By the time morning broke the volcano was billowing black smoke and they evacuated 3000 people from the area before the authorities realised it was April Fools Day. The culprits have never been caught but there is a price on their head as the crater is considered extremely sacred to the maoris. When we visited we could walk round it but were told not to enter into the middle out of respect. The authorities are thinking of closing it down to the public as there are continually people who disrespect their wishes and walk down into it which is a shame as there are superb views from up there. Jenny, Irene and I have decided to hire a car and travel down to the South Island for a few weeks so it should be fun. We considered a campervan but decided we would probably
Auckland
me in the Sky Tower be killing each other by the time a few weeks had gone by. Its better to stay in the hostels anyway so that we can still meet other people. We pick the car up on Tuesday so think the plan is to go from Auckland to Rotorua then down to Wellington to catch the ferry to the South Island so ill update again soon x
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Nicola
non-member comment
Hello
Hiya, thanks for my Birthday wishes, just had a quiet one this year, gearin up for the BIG 30 next year, oh my God how old are we getting, well Auckland looks great I can't believe how the time has flown in, you've done so much, take care speak to you soon xxx PS the boys send you big kisses and cuddles xx