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Published: June 16th 2006
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Well it is not exactly a 'travel' blog but a few pictures of a great day at the zoo. Went along the last weekend that we were in Auckland, it was raining so lots of the animals looking a bit cold and grumpy but it was all good as saw some goodens. NZ doesn’t really have any wildlife as such, no indigenous mammals or anything so the zoo a bit of a treat animalwise. There are some kiwi specimens though and at the zoo we got to see our first kiwis - not photos of those I am afraid, they are nocturnal and defiantly don't like their photos being taken - which are very cute flightless birds with a nose on the end of their beaks to snuffle out food. The zoo was a nice place to visit but was a bit sad as their very rare Sumatran tiger Nisha died the night before we went to visit, and just before her new mate was about to arrive. Looks like they going to get another female to replace Nisha but v rare breed of tiger so fingers crossed.
For anyone thinking about visiting Auckland it is important to know that
whilst EVERYONE says that Auckland is super spread out and that you will need a car, blah blah blah, but its not true - although a car would have been nice to go on some more adventures but luckily car rentals are really cheap, especially at the fantastically titled rent-a-dent. In fact other that the occasional bus home from the supermarket ladened with shopping we did very well getting around Auckland on foot. Ok Tom did have to get the bus to work but since he was the only person in Auckland commuting out of the city then it was not as bad as it could have been - although he may tell you differently. So don’t believe the hype, Auckland is very compact if you are lucky enough to live reasonably near the city centre - if only someone would tell that to the Aucklanders because as a rule they refuse to walk anywhere, oh and the roads are incredibly unpedestrian friendly and public transport is pretty rubbish (but cheap!).
But that’s enough of the travel advice. Our final week in Auckland was pretty busy, saying goodbye to people and finishing of our jobs. Tom was working as
a Town Planner in Auckland and Liz was working for a charity which hires our gowns for graduations a job that she got through a temping agency. The great thing about NZ is that they have loads of public holidays (Easter obviously but also ANZAC day is a holiday and the Queens Birthday bizarrely enough). Even people who are temping get paid for these days which was fantastic and even better is that when we left our jobs then we got 6% of our wages again as holiday pay. Other than that working in NZ has been scarily similar to the UK except that people are probably a bit nicer to each other on the phone and that men don't have to wear ties with their shirts - very few people wear suits, or maybe that was just the kind of places that we were working? Oh and whatever you have to wear Friday is dress-down day which is handy.
Because all of the people we were 'flatting' - thats a very kiwi thing to say - were leaving at the same time we had a leaving party which was ace. After the party all the Brits and a
few hangers on went off to a pub on The Viaduct to watch the Liverpool/Westham FA cup final. It was pretty late by that point and we had all had a few wines (as they say in NZ, just like ‘a few beers’ they don’t seem to feel the need to emphasise that they drink it by the glass) but a classic night no less, especially for us honorary Liverpudlians.
Oh and to complete the Auckland experience I thought you would like to see a picture of our flat (ok, ‘apartment’, we are kiwis now) in Parnell. There were six people living there and we had the whole of the top two floors at the front of the building - so loads of windows and balconies - fantastic in the summer, not sure about the winter as Aucklanders not big fans of central heating.
Really enjoyed living in Auckland, loved the people that we lived with and others that we met, even enjoyed the work, some of the time. Managed to do lots of sailing and save up some $$ for the rest of our world trip. But of course we can’t come all this way and spend
it all in Auckland so we are off to Wellington to see what all the fuss is about. Luckily for Tom it is supposed to be even colder in Wellington so he might finally be able to put to use the skiing jacket that he has been dragging around the world with him, sure looked out of place in Tahiti.
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