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Oceania » New Zealand
July 17th 2007
Published: July 17th 2007
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Hey all - I'm currently sitting in Hong Kong, wasting a bit of time before my flight home - very sad. Anyway, thought I'd finish up with the bloggery.

We arrived in Kaikoura, on the north-east coast of the South Island. Ro, in an uncharacteristic moment of organisational skill, had arranged for her friend Jen to stay at the same hostel as us, so we met her when we arrived.

The point of us going to Kaikoura was mainly to go on a whale watching boat - there is a massive marine trench just offshore, which traps planty-goodness that the whales like to eat, so they are all over the place. Apparently. The weather was crap the whole time we were there, so we had to resort to other activities. Like going to the pub next door to the hostel, which played 'Toss the boss' every night - you order a drink/round, and then flip a coin - guess it right, and the round's on them. After substantial statistical analysis (i.e. watching what the bloke before me in the queue guessed) we managed to have several hours of free drinking. Good times.

What else did we do - not a lot really, watched a bunch of films in the hostel. Oh, and we went on a long walk around the peninsular that Kaikoura is found on - which involved walking by a colony of sea-lions. Or seals, maybe - I struggle to tell the difference. Not a proper biologist.

We finally left, after a couple of pretty uneventful days, and made the journey up to the North Island. This involved a ferry journey which crossed the channel between the two - beautiful journey, but you couldn't stand out on deck for too long, or you'd freeze.

The ferry took us to Wellington, at the southern tip of the North Island.

We stayed there a couple of days - generally pottered about, but were a bit dissapointed - loads of people had told us how great a city it was. We must have missed large chunks of it then, cos we didn't exactly fall in love with the place. Although, once again the weather didn't help.

From Wellington, we moved on up to Taupo, a town on the edge of a massive lake, which is actually a water-filled volcanic crater. Very pretty, but we didn't really have too much time to explore the place - we arrived in the evening, and has to leave at lunchtime the next day, so that we could get to Aukland to meet Rich and hs girlfriend, Sam, friends of Ro's and mine from Uni.

Stayed in a hostel called the Fat Camel (I only mention it cos I thought it was funny - simple things), where Rich and Sam were also staying. That night, we hit the town - although it is suprisingly difficult to find decent pubs in Aukland. Fortunatly, one of Rich's mates from home, Dean, is living out there, so he showed us about a bit.

Aukland is pretty nice, by the way - loads of people hate it, but it was definately the closest thing to a city that New Zealand had - Queenstown and Wellington, the next two biggest, were towns really.

Anyway, Rich and Sam has the pleasure of getting up at half 7 to get on a bus the following day, whilst Ro and I did nothing. Stayed in bed till late, then went for a wander around the city. I say they got up - I havn't actually talked to them since, but I assume they managed it.

Anyway, the following morning (verrry early, about 3 o clock) I got up, and left Ro for the airport. She is heading off to South America, starting with Santiago; whilst I am heading to Hong Kong for a few days before returning to the Uk. Quite sad really - have been travelling with her for over 5 months, so pretty strange to be getting on a plane on my own.

Having read this back, it sounds like we did very little on the North Island. Which is more-or-less true, but I'm sure I've missed something out. If I remember what it was, i'll update it.

As usual, photos to follow. Hope everyone is well, and see you all (far too) soon.

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