Blogs from Auckland, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 339

A bright sunny morning here in Auckland. Yesterday I spent the day with my new bunkmate Sarah, from the UK, and we went to a nice beach outside of Auckland called Mission Bay. It seems there's a great epidemic going on here, and it's called Ice Cream. I saw that they had a Movenpick there in Mission Bay, and the lineup was about 2 blocks long. New Zealanders love their ice cream. I layed out on the beach for a couple of hours, and enjoyed the people watching. It's a very family orientated place. Everywhere you go people have their coolers (or chilly bins as they call it here), parked on the narrowest roads, and sitting on the steepest hills, all taking in the nice spring weather and sunshine. And of course there are many people ... read more

A blog cant get more up-to-date than this.... Today I faced my fear of heights and won. I ascended the tallest building in the southern hemisphere and after having a look around, instead of taking the lift down, I decided to go outside and jump. Later on I climbed up again, donned a harness and climbed up the inside of the mast to the 'crows nest', a hundred metres above where most people get to. I never thought I'd get to do either of these things. The idea of clambering around on the top of a tall building, on the wrong side of the glass, has always been the stuff of nightmares and morbid fascination for me. I can tell you with no doubt at all that that standing on a ledge 300m above the ground, ... read more

We got a van!!!!!!! Thursday (20th) we found a van we liked, negotiated the price, got it checked out by the mechanic, then negotiated the price and got it knocked down further for the price of the repairs that needed to doing. So we were going to get it the day after. After spending the whole day there, don't know how!, we went to get a late lunch at one of the many food courts that sell Japanese, chinese, Malay, Indian, Mongolian, Turkish food and many more and we had a curry, very nice. Friday (21st) spoke to the owner of the hostel who put worries in our minds. It just so happened there are several mechanics staying at the hostel so we met the guys whos van it is and we drove it to our ... read more

Today has been pretty much a day of getting some business done. Today I opened a mailbox at a local travelers service place. I need that so I can have my bank statements and it's also necessary for when I buy a car, hopefully, maybe tomorrow. There's a Car Fair that goes on here every Saturday morning. I opened up a bank accoutn with Bank of New Zealand today also, and that felt really good. What's really nice down here is that fact that there are people who are called ambassadors that walk up and down the main streets here, and I think they're Maori. They are basically there to help you, if you have any questions about Auckland. I had to find a local grocery store to buy some things and they were quite friendly. ... read more

Ahh, holidays! here we are in New Zealand for 7 weeks of intense relaxing and discovery...We started with Auckland where we landed on Wednesday 13th October. We stayed in a campsite by the beach for the first 2 days (Takapuna), in NorthShore, with Rangitoto island volcano greeting us every morning across the waters of the Hauraki gulf. The sunshine also made an appearance for our walks along the beach, nice part of Auckland! We then caught up with my friends Neville and Loretta who live in Northcote and they showed us around - Mount Eden and One Tree Hill in Auckland. We also headed to Murawai on the West Coast, dark volcanic sands, strong surf and green hills. We have now reached Paihia in the Bay of Islands in Northland (North of Auckland) from where we'll ... read more