Organising trip...painful!

---

4/2/09 = Arriving in NZ

Had an 8 hour sleep, but when alarm went off, still absolutely shattered...excited though. New Zealand...yeh! Scrabbled out of bed in darkness, grabbed washbag and clothes laid out night before and trudged off to bathroom with eyes still closed. Not impressed to find body lotion leaked all over washbag! Got all things together then and went out into half dark/half light of morning. Roads were completely clear, so walk to train was quicker and easier (albeit still agonising with 20kg bag!) Got there in plenty of time and jumped straight on to 5:20 train to airport. Only took 30mins, of which I spent at least 20mins trying to solve the leaking body lotion problem...which was actually solved with lots of illuminous yellow tape and a food bag. When did get to airport, we were 3 hours early, which was even too early to check in. Stood for a while waiting for desk to open and there was a mini drama when it did. We were on system, but they couldn't find our E-tickets, so they couldn't give us a seat. I was too tired to get stressed, so happily waited the 10mins it took them to sort it out. Was even happier to chuck on my 20kg bag on travellator and skip off with a new lease of life feeling.

Both had some Oz money left to spend, so went to have a look in gift shops to see if could purchase some last minute souveniers. What a joke! Only had $10 and that couldn't even buy us a fridge magnet...ha...should have known. Sat and read/wrote diary for a while, then at 7:45, we went through to gate. V.pleased to find a cafe at other side with some v.tasty looking cakes. Found the perfect muffin type cake that was perfectly on budget and snapped him straight up. Had a little laugh to myself that spent last bit of money on food...how typically me! Deb got a hot chocolate. Gobbled cake down, then strolled to gate only a little early. Were really suprised to find that there was no-one else there but us. Checked gate number on ticket again, but was right place, so sat down and played game on phone. Another group of people arrived few mins later and also thought it was wierd, because only 30mins from take off time. One of guys in group went to check it out and found that gate number had changed at last minuute. Had to trudge to other side of airport and found loads of people waiting there - much more like it. Good job that guy checked.

Little delay, but then boarded plane and got in my windo seat - yeh! No TV in seat though...boo! Took off quite easily and read magazine until food came. Had some really good foos on some of flights so far, so always get excited for meal. Wish I hadn't have done now. Was some kind of chicken in sauce, but wasn't that nice and were both still hungry after it. There wasn't even a mini dessert 😞 3 hours later, landed in NZ with another 3 hour time difference. So, was actually 3:20 when stepped of plane and stepped into the lovely warm sun...yeh! Collected our bags easy enough, bought a ticket for airtrain (only $13) and he took right to our hostel in Aukland = YHA. Checked it and wondered around the brilliant hostel...was great. Was clean, cosy, chilled...just like a home. We even had a proper bad to sleep in...by that I mean not a bunk bed. First time seen a proper bed in over 3months...so excited to go to sleep.

Were both tired from flying process headed straight for a shop for food. Reception lady told us there were no supermarkets, just conveniance stores, which personally I thought was a little inconveniant...especially since it took 15mins to get to nearest one and the one we found was an absolute joke. It was smaller than your average corner shop, more expensive than M&S (definitely not as good quality) and the amount of choice rivalled war rations. It took all the deciding out of what we were going to have for dinner, because they only sold pasta as an option. Was even more annoying that they didn't have prices on anything. Got our pasta war rations and walked back to hostel. Took more of city in this time and couldn't believe how small and cute it was. Auckland = biggest city in New Zealand, but felt smaller than Leeds even. Could see hardly any scyscrapers and had an amazing sea and mountain backdrop. Definitely not your average city. Very...strange...but in a good way.

Made dinner as soon as came back and met 2 English girls in kitchen. Was their first day of travelling and had just flown out of England...been so long since our first day... can't even remember what if felt like now. Feels like been away forever. Ate dinner, then got down to serious job of planning time in NZ, since neither of us had really any clue what we were going to do. Got all maps out, all information and tips people had passed on to us and also borrowed guide books from reception. Really excited now. Spent 3hrs looking through everything and highlight all places on map we wanted to go. When finished, we had a route 😊 Had a tim-tam and tea break (both happy and disappointed they have them here too...they are just so tasty it makes it too hard not to buy them) and re-checked our plans. Now knew where wanted to go, all had to do was sort out transport = job for tomorrow.

Had a very productive day and even managed to catch up on diary until hand hurt and made it impossible for me to write anymore. Went to bed v.happy with progress and even more happy to be sleeping in a bed without anyone else connected to it. Read, then dozed to sleep 😊


5/2/09 = An 'Organising Day' 😞

Couldn't believe it when opened eyes and was 7:45...longest have slept in ages. Was even still tired and found myself closing my eyes to carry on snoozing...brilliant! Was such a brilliant sleep until heard alarm going off. I didn't set an alam, so ignored it. Then went off again, and continued going off at 10minute intervals...how annoying! Girl opposite us had got up early and forgot to turn her alarm off. After 3 rounds of alarm, had to give in and get up at 8:30...suppose was getting up time anyway. Got changed, had breakfast in lovely hostel, then got ready for the stress of 'The Organising Day'. Hate days of organising. They always last way longer than they should, involve an overload of information and result in making snap decisions because I can't take in anymore. Not good.

Walked down the main street of Auckland looking for both travel shops and hairdressers. Been 4months since had a haircut now and the overall effect = not good. Haircut = high priority. Got all way to bottom of main street and still hadn't seen a hairdresses or a travel shop. Stress begins. Had to head into a post office and ask them and they directed us to a travel shop in the train station. Walked there and found not at all what we were looking for. There was a small booth that was neither an information booth or a travel shop, but some kind of mixture of the two. V.odd. Sat down with the man there anyway and he did look through our travel plans with us. Talked to him about biking round some of New Zealand and he directed us on to a specialist bike shop. So, off we trotted to bike shop and again told them our plans. The bike man gave us some advice, but then re-directed us to a better bike shop in town and told us to try them. More walking. Next bike shop = company Natural High = same company looked at at home. Was quite a walk to get to their shop, so decided to stop at another information/travel shop en route. Went to the tower and the info shop there. Again repeated our travel plans (stress rising) and she again repeated different bus options we could take. Couldn't really sort anything until had sorted out which part of country was best to bike, so left shop and headed for Natural High Bike shop.

As came out of tower, noticed free red bus outside, so decided to jump on, even though we didn't know where we were going. Deb dashed off to catch it, so I followed. Didn't work so well for me. Doors started to shut as I had only just stepped in and it took just a matter of seconds for doors to close fully on my body and fold me up like the beginnings of a paper aeroplane. Could hear everyone inside bus take a deep gasp of breath in horror as I tried to wrench myself free. Took a bit of wriggling, but prized myself out, ran to nearest seat and sat down with my head down...how embarrassing....wish I hadn't have worn such a vibrant green skirt! Things only got worse... Didn't have a clue where bus was going, but with every turn it took, it took us further and further away from where we needed to go. After 35mins or riding around pointless streets, we ended up getting off the bus in the exact same place we had got on it...what a nightmare! That bus journey just wasn't meant to be. Had to walk to bike shop instead, which involved even more hills. Auckland = really hilly city...hope at least some of NZ is flat?!

Took 20mins to get to bike shop and was lucky we found it at all. Turns out that Natural High don't even have a shop in Auckland and are actually based inside another shop. Went there, but was rubbish. We needed to sit down with someone and plan a route and make sure we were capable of ride. People at this shop could not help us with that and instead gave us a phone number. Really not happy with that. So hard to explain things over phone and we had a lot to sort through. Walked back to hostel deflated. Was 3pm, had been out for 5hours and were no further on than yesterday, in fact, if anything, we were actually worse off because we were both stressed! Couldn't face lunch, so pretty much got straight on to phoning bike lady. She was actualy really nice and helped us sort out some good preliminary plans. By time had got off phone and conferred with Debs, we had decided to bike round South Island and catch a bus round North Island. South Island = hilly and mountainous, but supposed to be a brilliant ride...and did stress to lady that we weren't bikers in any way shape or form, but she seemed to think we would be o.k. Hope so. All left do do now = book bus for North Island.

Hunger set in then, now that had something sorted, so headed out to another 'in'-conveniance store and ended up getting the best lunch ever as a treat for all hard work and stress. Got some lovely breadcakes, ham, butter and kettle crisps. Had 2 massive ham and crisps sandwiches and gobbled them straight down. Was while eating that an epiphany came to me...do all my best thinking when I'm eating. What about hiring a car instead of getting bus? Buses quite expensive, didn't go to all places we wanted to go and quite restrictive. Maybe would be cheaper to get car? Mentioned it to Deb and she said she had thought of it too. Started looking through all leaflets at hostel and found loads of car rental shops. Got straight on phone to them to check out prices. Was v.disappointing. All cars were either fully booked, or way too expensive...was just a bad time of year to hire a car. Tried at least 8 companies and was same for all of them. Oh no...really wanted a car now. Had felt great after lunch, but now back to feeling rubbish. Asked at hostel desk by chance and she said she couldn't get us a car for a few days. Asked her to try for us anyway and best she came back with was $33 per day, starting on 11th. Didn't know if that was a good deal, so decided to head back to information centre in tower and ask them. Was already 5pm and really needed to get something booked before everything closed.

Was another 15min, painful hill walk and had to wait in a queue for 20mins when did get to info centre. Asked lady about hiring a car and she tried loads of companies for us. They were either all fully booked or ridiculously expensive. Told her about quote from hostel and she said it was really good, so decided to try and book that. Since couldn't get car until 11th, had some days to kill. Didn't want to stay in Auckland any longer and didn't have time to waste, so looked at doing a bus tour of North island for 3/4 days and then to come back to Auckland to pick up car. That way, no time wasted and get to see Northland, which supposed to be beautiful. Left Deb booking that and I went to ring car company before they closed. All rush, rush, rush now and definitely against clock if wanted to get booked today and leave Aukland tomorrow. Was on hold with car company for 15mins before got really fed up and put phone down. Went back to Deb to find all bus tours and accomodation in Nothland fully booked because of impending bank holiday tomorrow. Disaster 😞. Was Waitangi bank holiday and Waitangi was a place in Northland, so really busy up there. Couldn't go. All could do was stay in Auckland another day and look at going North a day later. Deb checked this out, while I went back to phone and desperately tried to get through to car company. Was on hold for 30mins. 30mins of the worst music ever and I was first in queue for whole time...was like torture. Couldn't believe when someone answered...an actual human voice. Booked car straight away. Gave my credit card details without even knowing what car was or what terms and conditions were...really needed that car! Paid $112 deposit, did a few checks with them (not totally reckless) then came off phone so happy that at least one thing was sorted. All could do now, was get up early and try to book Northland tour to start on 6th.

Trudged back to hostel again, up hills that were starting to feel familiar because had walked them so many times. Glad sorted car, but disappointed hadn't sorted more immediate problem of next few days?! Hopefully will be able to sort something in morning. Got some soup from inconveniance store on way back and planned to cook it with remaining pasta - not v.exciting. Lady on reception said we would be able to book a tour North to leave on 6th, so that made us feel a little better. Didn't book it though...had enough for one day. Made dinner, crashed on sofas, and found it hard to move again. Had intentions of watching some TV to chill out, but when went to room to get jumper and glasses, ended up not coming out again. Were 2 new people in room. Had a quick chat to them, then climbed into lovely bed. Wiped out from awful organising day. Read book for a while (ended up getting really into it and reading for far too long), then turned light off just after midnight to finally go to sleep.

---

Photos

Typical...it gets everywhere.
Look closely.

The Skytower
Every city has one.

Wow
Part of the busker show that was on all week...had a few minutes to spare, to watch.

That is a grown lady in a box
...a 16inch box...unbelievable!