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After much bumping and gear changing we have arrived in Auckland - sadly this meant saying goodbye to old vinnie volkswagen but meant we got a decent bed for the night in a top hotel. Not particularly tear jerking departing with Vinnie as I belted my head off the cupboard for the umpteenth time.
Prior to auckland we had a night at Waihi Beach which was pretty uneventful apart from the most disgusting meal ever at a place called Cactus Jacks. Earlier in the day was far more rewarding as we hauled our fat carcasses up Mount Manganui(?) - all 300metres of it. We were blowing at the summit but what a view.
Auckland has been a bit of a belter so far - great city with lots of floaty things in a top harbour. Around this said harbour we successfully acquainted ourselves with the locals last night in a proper wee boozer called Danny Doolans. What a night. Some random bloke insisted on buying the bar various shots for most of the evening - he reckons he loved the atmosphere in the place so much and didn't want people to leave so got a german wench he frequented to
keep going to the bar for trays of black zambuca, tequilla etc - superb - so of course it was rude to leave and very rude not to partake !!!! There was a great live band on which kept being hijacked by locals who thought they could do a better job - sport on the tv's and flaggens of Cider to be had. The only problem with all this revelry was that
a) we never got round to eating,
b) the place did'nt shut until 3am &
c) Elyse has the hangover from hell this morning and had to be dragged out of her pit to check out of the hotel, which is not making my day any easier (hence why I'm having to tip tap this wee ditty - she is currently sat over my right shoulder chirping & cheeping every now & again) Very funny evening with Elyse having her usual spacial awareness problem - she lent in to talk to some surfer dood and consequently head butted him - proper comedy moment. She was of course completetly oblivious to this and continued to bend his ear and all surfer dood said was "head clash - interesting"
Off
to catch our flight to Fiji now - hopefully it is today - losing track of dates & time
we're on the main island tonight then getting early morning transfer to our little island paradise
Elise here - in my defence someone knocked my stool and launched me into him - honest !!!!!!!!! We so couldn't wait to get to our hotel room after a week in the van - it was a great way to see the place and saved us a fortune but wouldn't recommend it for longer than a week. We stayed at the Crowne Plaza which was gorgeous I was so excited about having a proper bed, bathroom and fluffy robe after a week of back ache from Vinnie's delightful cushion bed - but only got a few hours kip thanks to the usual Oakland early morning alarm whingeing at me to get up - so feeling very very tired and got a full on day ahead travelling - not good! can't wait to get to fiji - no map reading, no research for places to stay, eat, drink and no more long trousers & raincoats - just sitting on the beach chilling for 5
whole days - bring it on !
having trouble uploading photos again - crap internet cafe - will try to add more later - although not sure what access we'll have in fiji
lots of love to all
me & him
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so i see that some things stay the same no matter what side of the world you are on- sounds like we missed a great night out! isnt this the day that you get to live twice travelling back in time? with a hangover- what a great way to spend it!!! lying on a sunlounger will do wonders for your back after the campervan. looking forward to seeing the photos of figi. save travelling. you are missing nothing over here but rain. loads of love xxx