Blogs from Auckland, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 341

Greetings from Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand and the final stop on our trip (if you don't count our airline connections in LA and Philadelphia). We arrived here last night by plane. We flew out of the beautiful Dunedin International Airport (not being sarcastic - it's a really nice, spacious, well-designed airport, especially when you consider the city it serves only has a population of 100,000). We arrived in Auckland around 11:00 pm, and took a shuttle to our Backpackers in the center of the city. Our travel-bleary eyes were a little startled by the 24-hour party atmosphere of Auckland Central Backpackers. The place is massive, in a 10+ storey tall building which we think was formerly an office tower. In addition to accomodation, it includes a bar and nightclub, internet cafe, travel bureau, ... read more

Our bus for Auckland didn’t leave until 1:00 pm, so the owner of our hotel told us to go into town, enjoy ourselves, have lunch and he would meet us at the transport center with our bags. He was there on time and our bus to Auckland was totally full. We made it to Auckland and went back to the Hyatt. The bellman at the Hyatt had gotten information on sending our bag back to the US and it was in the $300 range! Michael decided that he was going to see if the Hyatt would store our one bag until January. Since they have a storage room and Michael has been a good Hyatt client I thought that was a great idea. They immediately agreed. I hope it’s there when we return! We went out ... read more

Hello again. I know, it’s been a while. My initial concept of updating this thing weekly (if not daily) appears to have been a tad optimistic. Anyway- apology over, on with the blog… As you can see from the location, we are currently in a cold and wet Auckland (the change in temperature, it has to be said, is not one of the highlights of the trip so far…). As you can imagine, much ground has been covered since last I wrote, so best to crack on. After leaving Koh Samui, we headed south, in the direction of Malaysia. Heading south in Thailand, the country becomes more Muslim- lots of Islamic schools, and virtually all the women wearing hidjabs. It would no doubt be an interesting region to spend some time, but unfortunately it is not ... read more

Equipment all works perfectly and our first night as backpackers is a success. We get up and are not as sore as we thought we would be, but we have a five hour hike back to the ferry pier on Rangitoto. We break down camp and head back. We decide to take a different route and get a little off track at one point. It is a very steep climb and Michael tells me to go another way. As I am climbing, my foot slips on a loose rock and I go down face first, with the 40-pound pack pinning me down. My knee is in pain and I can hardly breathe. My first thought is of the little kid in the movie “A Christmas Story” that falls down in his snowsuit and can’t get up. ... read more

We leave all our bags at the Hyatt but our backpacks. We walk several (downhill) blocks to the ferry pier. We take the ferry to Rangitoto, mostly with people that will make this a day trip. The climb up the crater is harder than we expected. We are not used to carrying 40-pound packs on our backs. Although we are slower than usual, the packs are really pretty comfortable to wear. We head off to Motutapu and soon realize that we are at the point of no return. The last ferry has gone back. We are not hiking as fast as usual with the packs on our backs, but will get there and have camp set up before dark. The bay is beautiful and there are only two other campers there. One came in by kayak. ... read more