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Published: March 31st 2006
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The last couple of days in Auckland have shown us that it’s true, any city can be perfectly acceptable as long as you have enough money to insulate yourself from any unpleasantness. It’s a really sprawling sort of place and the public transport system is probably OK if you know it well, but we didn’t, so until we picked up the car didn’t see the different areas. If you’re staying downtown, as we are, and you have a car, you actually have to get out because the parking is soooo expensive. So we went to North Shore, Takapuna Beach to be precise, and had a day of beaching as the weather was nice. Having spent the last few weeks constantly telling Barb to be careful with the sun, use sunscreen at every opportunity, southern hemisphere ozone layer depletion etc., etc., I should have realised that I would be the first victim. The day was only about 72 degrees, light breeze, even so I liberally applied factor 8 all over.....except my face. Big mistake, 2 days later I’m still pink and just a bit sore. North Shore is nice though, but you need money. Also forgot to tell you all that we
Sunburn Beach
Bigmouth JB gets his comeuppance had the best fish and chips of our lives when we were on Waiheke island. Out of paper, eaten outside on the street and it was just perfect, crisp batter, chips to die for, and fish cooked just right but tasted as if it had been caught 5 minutes ago, and probably had. I feel I should apologise for being rude about Auckland in the last entry. I will, there are some nice bits of the city, but downtown really is a shithole. Every other Kiwi I’ve spoken to feels the same.
So now we’ve moved on to Rotorua, 3-4 hours drive through some lovely countryside, stopped on the way at a town called Cambridge, picture postcard perfect, but with more than a touch of Stepford about it. Actually, lots of New Zealand so far has reminded me either of Stepford Wives, or Twin Peaks.
Rotorua is the ‘Spiritual Maori home’, or slap in the middle of a huge geothermal area, what this means is that the hotel we’re in has a swimming pool with an average temp of 33 deg, and a couple of spa pools with a temp considerably higher. This also results in a strong smell of
sulphur in the air. Consequently last night we had a hot swim followed by a soak in the spa pool including a most satisfying ‘puff adder’ fart in the spa, no one would ever know. FANTASTIC!
More about the driving. I’ve found out that kids can drive here at age 15. No wonder insurance isn’t compulsory, I doubt if any companies would offer cover.
Other interesting things I’ve found out (but I may be wrong, I got the info. from the proprietor of a ‘bottle shop’). Parents must not leave a child of less than 14 yrs on it’s own. At age 15 children may get a letter from a teacher saying that their relationship with their parents has broken down and then get a grant from the government for their own flat. So it seems that at 14 yrs 364 days this is a child unable to be left, the next day it can have it’s own flat at taxpayers expense and a V8 ute. Probably explains some of the driving (and youth behaviour) I’ve seen.
Just got to have a bit of a dig a the kiwis and technology. There was a bit on the news about the
Lakeside at Rotorua
They served a good hot chocolate in the cafe ICANN conference in Wellington and how the delegates have to pay NZ$33 p/day for broadband with a limit of 50Mb. Well we’re in a hotel with exactly the same deal, so I’m using alternative means, but still pricy.
Oh dear jb really didn’t like Auckland, it was noisy, but think you can see why when you look at where we stayed - true about the money side (if I had it) I would have just shopped and spent time in the cocktail bars! The seaside bit was chilled, but the drive out today was entirely different, really werid seeing an entire lake heated to 55 degrees, that also has boiling blobs in it (yes I did stick my finger in) feeling is believing. Also this most fantastically colured blue lake was adorable. We only met one other couple and it was a lovely peaceful walk. Great to come back to hot pool with decent bottle of wine at a good price! The scenery here is pretty good - great feeling of space, kiwis aren’t as immediate at the ozzies we met, so far they are polite, bit reserved.
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