NZ FAM: Day 6

---

Brutal wake up this morning…up at 5:30am because we have customized this itinerary for the agents to see Auckland so we have to get to Christchurch in time for our flight today. Breakfast, then a nap on the bus. Our first stop was 1 hour visit to a Jade factory where we saw how the jewellery was made then had a chance to purchase it. On the bus again and headed up the west coast. There was quite a lot of coach riding today and I was in the back seat so I slept a lot of the drive. We stopped in a couple of small towns for rest breaks along the way. One called Springfield where everyone took pictures thinking its where Simpsons was created, but no. In the afternoon, we had a surprise for the group and gave out Contiki awards to the agents for different categories. The big award went to Sally Wu for being the Contiki Legend – especially after her bungy jumping experience. The daredevil award went to Gor since he did every crazy optional he could do while in Queenstown. We also gave a good spirit award to Jenny for always looking out for everyone on the coach and making sure everyone was ok. When we got to Christchurch airport, we said our goodbyes to Murray and Kevin for being such wicked guides and driver to us! Without them, this would not have been the exceptional trip it was!
Soon as we got to Auckland, it was mayhem. Us Contiki guys were no longer informed of the itinerary, contact info, etc for our stay in Auckland. FC was in charge of this portion of the FAM trip so we got to go along for the ride! Our hotel was amazing in Auckland – stayed at the Sky City Hotel. We were right at the base of the Auckland Tower so we could stand there and watch people jumping off the tower. I would have done it if we had the option to but we didn’t. We had an included dinner that night up the tower. It was a great buffet and everyone stayed for quite a bit. Then on to explore Auckland’s night scene and the majority of the tour all ended up taking in a drag queen show or 2 and dancing the night away! Rachel and I got in about 2am, so finally we had a late night out!

---