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Until St Patricks Day!! WUU HUU!
New Zealand
Aotearoa - Land of the Long White Cloud
Population - Approx 4 Million
Comprises of 2 Island (North&South)
Capital - Wellingtom (North Island) Language - English&Maori
Money - NZ Dollar 1 Euro = approx 2 NZ Dollar
Famous for - Rugby, The "All Blacks" & a million other things
Pakeha - Meaning White Man
20 degrees at the start of December so NOT SO....Hot Hot Hot!! Winter falls in the months of June - August & summer from December - February.
One of the last Countries to be peopled about 1000 years ago and where the Governent respect the indiginous people.
Flew into Auckland for the start of December and booked into
Albert Park Backpackers ...wouldn't recommend it and did we leave some comment in the comment book!
Only arrived an hour and I had managed to get a job by accident as an extra for a Bollywood movie!! A ride on a roctek bungy!! Thought it was just a picture they wanted at first until the guy starts to
strap me in, I was unaware that I was actually going up...
Tried to hire a car from Auckland to Welly but the guy on the phone started laughing and said I would find it pretty hard to find a company that would hire me a car to Welly as it's too hard& too expensive to get it back from there and he suggested we hitch!! so we met up with a swede and an Ozzie and thought it would be safe & fun to hitch to Wellington...if anything just for the experience...It took us a week to get to Welly over all the people we met along the way, ended up over on the East Coast in Tauraunga and stayed with friends of the Swedish guy Lars where we met more people from the West Coast that were spending the weekend there, Cara (Who is moving to Cork in Feb) so she invited us to her parents Batch (little house by the sea) so off we went to Sunset beach Port Waikato
and made it just in time for Sunset where we sat in the surf club and watched the colours of the sky go from burnt
Off to The Races in Style!!
Wellington Races at Trentham Stadium red to orange...felt like I was in Home& Away.... seriously!
Some Pictures of Tauranga ****Put link in and make unlocked from Yahoo Pics
WELLINGTON
Eventually made it to Wellington a week after we set off my first impression was wow!! Met up by accident with a guy called Kris who invited us to stay with him as Christmas was around the corner & neither Karen or I wanted to spend it in a hostel, Kris introduced us to all his friends & before we knew it we were having Christmas dinner with Sams’ family ….The Nolans!!
And what a memorable Christmas dinner that was…..
Smoking marijuana is a lot more acceptable over here than it is at home… and after dinner we all went to the garden for drinks&as it went joints of home grown weed... what a killer! We don’t smoke so when it was offered we said no thanks but we were roped into having a sociable smoke!! And we thought it would be rude not to....
That was the end of that, the conversation went something like this…
Blonde Irish girl says.. "chicken doesn’t taste the same over here at
Off to The Rugby Sevens
Rugby Sevens West Pac Stadium all"
Kiwi says.. why where did you buy it?
Girl says .. "in the supermarket"
Kiwi says .. the way it’s supposed to be cooked is in the oven & then in the microwave for 3 hrs
Irish girls says.. WHAT!! Ye cook ye’re chicken over here for 3 MONTH!! That’s crazy!!
All the kiwis just stare!! We made our excuses & slowly made our way to the garden gate where we fell over it in convulsions of laughter only to have the Nolans ask us if we were ok, we just couldn't be controlled and couldn't understand why they didn't think what we said was funny?
Shortly after that we had to leave as we just couldn’t stop laughing so after a slow motion of saying good bye to about 20 people we were at home laughing the afternoon away over what was said. You just had to be under the influence to find this hilarious.
St Stephens Day Kris brought us to his Dads “Batch” in Wairarapa on the East Coast, the views on the way were amazing, rambling hills of Forrest and sheep, well out of reach from mobile phone reception where the nearest shop
was 30 mins drive, we drove until we came to the highest most point only to be greeted by the sea when we got to the top and a view that would make you gasp.. blue Skies that reflected the water and miles and miles of ocean.
Arrived at the batch which was perched high on the coasts cliff top, it was like something from a movie, the windows were practically floor to ceiling& wall to wall which caught every view from all angles & the quality of the interior was magnificent. I don’t have the words to describe this idyllic place, maybe the perfect place…… At night the stars are so bright you could sit for ever just naming them or just staring at them in my case, need to brush up on the milky way and Orions belt…********sooooo did not want to leave. Oh nearly forget about George … the pet lamb!! What a cutie and just adored Therese-Ann, literally followed her around everywhere, one morning we went Cray fishing which had us at 5.30am to strap huge metal Cray cages to the Quad bikes and down to the beaches to lay them under water out by
the rocks, Paul and Kris got suited up in their wet suits and me, well I had to stay behind and look on!! As it was FREEZING!! The next morning we had to get up early and go back down to see if there were any Kray fish, the guys had to suit up again and go back out to shallow sea to bring the heavy pots in but unfortunately they were empty. So no Kray fish for dinner that night instead we had some of Therese Anns finest Oriental cooking which I have to say was better than any restaurant.
NYE , we were the 1st to bring in the NY, a group of us went camping up the East Coast to a place called Gisborne, it’s known as a city but to me it was more of a big town and it’s the first city in the world to see the sun each day, with beautiful beaches, hot pools, wineries& surf.
That weekend seen thousands and thousands of people flock here for the Rhythm & Vines Concert , which we didn’t make but took advantage of the party atmosphere that surrounded the city.
http://www.rhythmandvines.co.nz/pressreleases.asp
Flat Crawl
On a flat crawl in Tauranga..these people really know how to party but they certainly can't drink like the Irish thats for sure!! New Year brought the tedious job of registering with recruitment agencies, apartment hunting as it was time we left Kris and moved closer to the city, falling on our feet again I found this amazing apartment on Tory Street just off Courtney Place, Courtney Place is the main area where all the clubs and bars are so we couldn’t have found a more worth while and I might add even dangerous spot, 30 seconds from where it’s all happening!! The apartment is huge and really modern with en suites and Jacuzzi with 2 balconies over looking the Lone Star bar, there is a great bunch of people living with us, the Irish being the majority.
End of January came the races which is a big day out and after that was the Rugby Sevens, if there was ever a weekend to be in Wellington then it’s for the Rugby Sevens, the stadium was packed with people all dressed up in costumes from Aliens to Rocky Balboa, priests, doctors, Nuns, Borat, Men as women or what ever was the theme of the moment and this went on for 2 days and spilled from the stadium to the bars and
clubs on Courtney Place it was an electric atmosphere and well worth making the effort for, think Samoa were the over all winners.
Wellington is an amazing city, especially in the summer, it has everything, the weather, man made beaches, botanical gardens,
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James
non-member comment
Bout time you let us know what's been happening!
Hi Bridge...great to hear from you, been wondering what you have been up to, sounds great, time is flying eh? cant believe you are leaving in 5 weeks but your coming back and maybe I will see you in the South Island for a sky dive or something lol! take it easy girlie. Jxx