Another Go Around

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I have started writing this blog on Saturday, April 25, 2009. We have officially had our first Planes, Train’s and Automobiles moment. We found an unreal deal online, that cost us $75 each to fly from Auckland to Christchurch. We were late for our flight. Worse even, I checked in just in time, but Northy got stuck at the Auckland airport. It cost us an additional $65 to get him on the next flight to Christchurch an hour later.

Now that I think of it, it hasn’t been our first PT and A moment. We have shared a bed for the last few nights. And Northy, those weren’t pillows your hand was between. If you don’t understand the references, you’ll just have to go out and enjoy the classic film.

Another note of significance; this is the first blog I have written on my new toy. I decided to buy a cheap computer after Dad went home, mostly because writing this blog has become pretty important to me. It’s also handy for internet access. Besides, we have to keep as up to date on this swine flu epidemic… Which is starting to concern me a little bit. It’s also the smallest laptop I’ve seen, so it fits into my small backpack. It’s so convenient, and I’m excited I have it with me.

Northy arrived on the 16th of April, the day after the old bull left. At the time of writing, the old bull had experienced some horrible jet lag. I hope it was worth the time he spent here, though. Jet lag is never fun.

Thursday, April 16th - Early morning arrival of Bryan. He was ready for an adventure. We had some meat pies which were quite disappointing and I promised him a good first day in Auckland. I had met some nice people the day before Northy arrived and I promised some good company that evening. We drove from the airport to Mount Eden so Northy could test out his ridiculously good looking, and expensive SLR camera. This thing will be babied through the whole trip, and deserves to be. We grabbed a quick shower and I had a hammock break at the hostel. We ran some errands, most importantly grabbing the supplies for dinner. It included steak, onions, potatoes, and beer. We dropped off our supplies at the hostel, then returned the car to Scotties. It had been good to us. We got a drive back to the hostel where we started cooking dinner and had the drinks. I had arranged a night out with a few Canadians we had met in Wanaka, and with a few others I had met in Auckland. We went to Danny Doulan’s, a lively Irish Pub on the waterfront. There was live music and cold beer. I was a happy boy. Northy and I pulled up to a table with a few beers and were happy to be in NZ. Shortly after we arrived, Mike and Mira showed up. These two went to Queen’s University in Kingston. Mike’s from Calgary and Mira is from Sudbury. They started drinking with us, and we tried to hold a conversation over the loud music in the pub. As the night went on, some students from the University joined us who I had met earlier. Jack Daniels also made an appearance. The night took off sometime between 11 and midnight, and the details get a lil fuzzy, but I do remember having a good night. At some point we realized Mike and Mira didn’t have any definite plans for the next few days, and we invited them to join us on a trip up north to Ahipara, where we planned to do some surfing for a few days. For the night’s sleep it was back to the group dorms. I’m not a huge fan of going in after a late night. I’m usually far less coordinated than I usually am (and that’s not saying much), and you have to worry about the others sleeping. But when I got to my room one of my roommates had a barking spider problem and had her chainsaw turned full on. If the others could sleep through that, I was able to stumble to bed with little problem.

Friday, April 17: it took the morning to recover from the night before, but Northy and I eventually headed out to research some car rentals. After some unsuccessful attempts, we walked towards downtown to figure our lives out. We had planned on going to a quiet coffee shop to get some maps out and rest a little bit. But, as soon as we got our coffees and maps out, a young girl at the next table turned to us and asked if she could join us. She was another southern belle from North Carolina. We chatted for a while until her bus arrived, and we found out that she was a cheerleader for the Carolina Hurricanes, and had been there during their Cup run a few years ago. As we were talking to Meghan, another American approached us, thinking we were all Americans. Her name was Kelly. She has been all over the world teaching, and sat down to tell us all about it. Meghan had to leave to catch her bus, but Kelly had a few hours to kill, so she offered us a drive to Mission Bay to kill some time. It was an interesting start to the day. Eventually we would end up back at Scotties where we got the best deal.
We drove to Devonport, which sits on the opposite side of the bay from the city center. It was later on in the evening and the city looked good. We picked up Mike and Mira nearby. We learnt that their hangovers were a little worse than ours that day. We all piled in the car, and I took to the drivers seats. We were running late, and darkness was already falling on us. We had a 350 km drive ahead of us, and I wasn’t particularly looking forward to it. Driving these roads during the day is stressful enough. Thankfully most of the roads are very clearly marked with reflectors. There are barely any lights, unless you are driving through a town. We got to some windy bits up hills, through mountains, and thankfully the weather was fair. There wasn’t much traffic, and it decreased the further we travelled north. A very small percentage of NZ population live in the far north, and there’s a bigger maori population up there than in the rest of the country. Sadly we hit a critter on the way up. I tried to react, but didn’t swerve to miss it since I was on a curve going 80km/hr. It was an emotional moment…
After a long trip we made it to the holiday park that Vicent worked at. We met Vicent at the gate, and I was glad to see him. He had cut his hair and hadn’t forgotten about the scar I left him on the forehead. I guess Spaniards like to hold grudges… It was late, we were tired and ready for bed. The cabin featured a double bed, which Mike and Mira grabbed, and a bunk bed. I was used to the top bunk from my days at Guelph with Ron and D-Rodd, so I hopped up there for the night.

Saturday, April 18: the long drive at night was worth the day we had on Saturday. After a big breakfast in Kaitaia, Mike, Northy and I rented boards for the day. Mira stayed at the holiday park to take care of some things on the internet. We headed down the road from Shipwreck Bay and found some good surf to try for our first day on the water. Mike had much more experience than Northy and I, and it showed. It didn’t take long for Northy to figure it out, and after about an hour, all of us were up on the boards. Like I might have mentioned on a previous blog, I can now understand how surf bums do it… The only thing you look forward to is that next big wave, and that seems to be enough to keep them going. We were hooked. Vicent joined us a little later in the water, but was out pretty soon after. The water was a little too chilly for him to stay in long without a wetsuit. We had a little Canadian polar bear fat on us, so we were well insulated. To us, the water was nice! It was a big day in the water, and we were hungry for a big meal. We all put a nice meal together with Lamb and some salad, then got some rest for the next day.
Sunday, April 19: It was another surfing day. But this time we went in with a little bit of confidence. We found out that they were expecting big breakers a few kms away from Kaitaia along 90 mile beach. Mike was really keen to get to them, so all of us jumped into the car with the boards on top to get there. From the shore they looked perfect. They seemed to be rolling away, with plenty of time for us to ride the wave before the entire wave crashed down. It was a different story in the water. These waves were massive, and we could barely get out beyond the wash. They had to be two meter swells, which was way out of our league. Mike and Vicent almost caught a few, but were tossed around in the wave like they were seaweed. After getting bashed about for a good forty five minutes, and escaping injury, we turned around and went to the same spot as the previous day. That was much better for us, and even though we were tired, beaten and hungry, we caught some waves and had another good day. That night we watched Vertical Limit on the projection screen. At the beginning of the movie, the audio wasn’t working correctly, and Northy and I dubbed the narrative. It was horrible, but was somehow better than the actual story. We had a good laugh at some of the horrible special effects and corny lines, then went to bed giggling.

Monday, April 20: We had a big breakfast in town and called Poor Knights Island to do the dive. We couldn’t do it that day since the weather was turning bad. We’ll have to go back sometime and do it. According to all the travel books and guides, it’s one of the top ten dive sites in the world. Jacques Cousteau loved it, so I’m sure Northy and I would be pleased. We played some more ping pong, then drove towards Matauri Bay, where Mike and Mira had invited us to stay with them. They had a connection through family who own a beautiful property on the bay. We arrived at the house and were greeted by a woman who takes care of the property. She showed us around, and our jaws dropped. It was a gorgeous place, and we had it all to ourselves. We still had a few hours before darkness so we wanted to get more surfing in. We couldn’t find any surfboards, so we found some boogie boards and jumped in the water. The sunset was pretty good… We wished we had our cameras. We had a huge night inspired by gin and a Russian drink called Kirsch (sp?) and trivial pursuit. Geography also came into play, and the night was over at 5am. You’d think we would learn our lesson, but no. We once again would pay for our night the next day.

Tuesday, April 21: we had breakfast at noon. Grease was the main ingredient. It was our last day at the house, so we took the opportunity to walk around and take some pictures, and to relax a little bit before we headed back to Auckland. It was hard leaving that place, but we needed to head back to Auckland to get the car back and to drop off Mike and Mira. They had a flight out to Dubai in the next few days and were due for a dinner back at their hosts house. They were great people, and I’m sure we’ll all meet up again. We had arranged to stay at Sarah’s house, who I met with dad at Little Earth Lodge. She met us at a gas station since we were hopelessly lost without Tom Tom. We followed her back to her place. We had a cup of tea, talked about Scuba diving and the adventures we had up north, and went to sleep.
Wednesday, April 22: The day was spent at Sarah’s place in Ponsonby. Northy and I went out to do some shopping and to get acquainted with Auckland again. We walked along K-Road for a while and stopped for a coffee. I had broke my sandal in Ahipara playing a heated, three game ping pong match with Mike when the strap snapped off. It’s a horrible feeling when your sandal breaks… After the coffee and some updating in our journals we headed towards downtown on foot. We got a good hunger on, so we found a Japanese restaurant, then headed back along Queen street to a quicksilver store where I bought my sandals. In NZ, they call them jandals. Not sure where that comes from. I also had my mind set on a little laptop to travel with, so we stopped by a Dick Smith’s store, which would be the NZ equivalent to Future Shop or Best Buy. Since they didn’t have them in stock, we had to make a trip out to the mall, where they were supposedly on sale. It was a twenty minute train ride south of the city center. We found it, then headed back to Sarah’s for a rest.

Thursday, April 23: We had a very quiet day, and relaxed at Sarah’s. We watched a few movies and wasted the day away. It was awesome.

Friday, April 24: We had another movie day. It was really a luxury, so we did a lot of it. We watched Body of Lies and K-19 Widowmaker. Another sweet, sweet day.

Saturday, April 25: Sarah finally had a free day, since having a day of scuba diving postponed because of bad weather. It was ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) Day in New Zealand. Without doing any serious research, it is very similar to Rememberance Day in Canada. It actually marks the first day the ANZACs at Gallipolli (I have to credit Wikipedia for some help with that one). But, like I mentioned, it honours all of those who have served during wartime. We stopped by One Tree Hill where we saw and stood next to the stump that was once that tree. We drove to the Auckland museum to check out the World war exhibits. At the cenotaph there were a few wreaths laid by politicians and community groups during the dawn service. Some kids were picking at some of the wreaths, which I thought was inappropriate. The parent’s weren’t too interested in making sure their young ones were staying close. I really hope none of the vets were watching. We left the museum to find a bit to eat, and we settled for the Auckland Fish Market. I recommended the same thing I have had a few times now, and we all enjoyed it. Northy doesn’t like the fact that you usually have to buy your ketchup or tartar sauce on the side. “That’s ridiculous” he’d say. After the lunch we stopped by a Gelato bar. Sarah treated us to some, then we left to get packed and ready to go to the airport. Sarah drove us to the airport with just enough time to spare. We gave her a big hug and ran in to catch our flight. I checked in electronically without a problem and received my luggage tag. Northy tried to check in, but had a problem at the kiosk. We went to the customer service desk where the employee refused to let him check his luggage. At this point, I still had my tagged luggage on my back, and the employee turned to me and said that I should put my luggage on the belt before I missed the flight; meanwhile he could have processed Northy’s luggage and ticket with no problem. I did as I was told, and grabbed the flight with time to spare. There were even two empty rows on the flight. AND we were charged for the inconvenience, the same amount as the tickets we had bought. We ended up writing an email to Air New Zealand to complain and get a refund. I’l let you know how that turns out. We both eventually got to Christhchurch and checked into our hostel. We had a night out on the town on Manchester Street.

Sunday, April 26: Our main goal in this city was to buy a car. I had tried twice before and figured I had a grasp on the process. We checked out two car markets; one called the Christchurch Car Market, and the other called the Backpackers Car Market. We first stopped by the first one which was closest to the square, and didn’t find anything we were looking for. We took a station wagon out for a test drive that was selling for $1200 by a French Canadian girl named Marie. The steering was stiff and the vents didn’t work, so we decided against it. She was also selling a friend’s car for $800, but we were skeptical and walked away from it. There was also a Belgian selling his van for way above our budget. We also weren’t quite sure whether we wanted a van or a car, so we weren’t quite ready to make our decision. We decided to take the hunt to the next car market. It was a little further out, and took us on a 20 minute walk away from the town center. We found ourselves in the middle of an industrial area, and upon this car market, which had a huge selection of cars. We were greeted by the manager who was stuck in the 70’s. Mike was a middle aged Englishman, who was apparently well travelled. He enjoyed his beer and his marijuana. We could smell both on him. Regardless, he seemed to be a nice enough guy and he walked us through the process. At this point, I was a little more wary of his motives than Northy was. Soon enough they would become obviously apparent to both of us. We walked through the lot, and came back to a station wagon parked near the entrance of the property. It had over 300,000kms on it, and it was selling for $1200. We took it for a test drive, and even though it started with some smoke out of the tailpipe, it drove relatively well. The interior was nice enough, and had a cd player in it. We checked all the lights, and the body was in decent condition. The only major issue with it was the mileage… It kept us from making an offer that day. After returning, Mike asked if we wanted to buy it, and we refused and said we’d like to think about it. We were interested, and asked that it have a mechanical check done on it. It cost us $80.

Monday, April 27: Early morning took us for a walk to the Backpackers Car Market, where we had the Englishman, Mike, fake a phone call to a pair of made-up Parisiennes on the other line about the station wagon we expressed some interest in. We had asked him to offer these supposed sellers if they would accept a generous offer of $700. We figured this was more than fair on an old model car, with over 300K kms on it. We were worried the engine would go before our three months of travel were over, and the repair would not be worth it. Mike seemed offended, and quickly said there was no way that the ‘sellers’ would accept the offer. The lowest they would go was $1050. Since it was called the Backpackers Car Market, we figured it would be fair to ask them to contact the owners to try. He agreed with little enthusiasm. Here’s what the one sided phone call sounded like. “Bonjour, cest Mike vendre le voiture, pour sept cent… uhhh … oui oui, ok, mille cinquante? Ok ok. Au Revior.” And with that, he hung up the phone. He turned to us and said, ‘yep. They won’t go lower than one thousand fifty. Sorry mates, It’s the best you’re gonna get.” He refused to give us their contact details, and the girl claimed it was company policy not to give them away, like it was some sort of privacy issue. So, feeling a little ripped off having spent eighty dollars on the mechanical inspection of the wreck, we turned our backs and walked away. It was hardly worth $400. Now with a slight chip on both our shoulders, we walked to get some breakfast along Gloucester Street. Lamb souvlaki was hardly breakfast food, but it did the job. We went back to the first car market where we met the French Canadian girl, to test drive the young Belgian’s van. We were beginning to be exhausted from the process. At this point, we were torn between getting the van, or the high mileage rip off of a car. It seems ridiculous to me now that we even considered buying either of these cars, but at the time they seemed like our only options. We were getting impatient. We sat down over a few beers to quench our thirst, and wrote down some pros and cons between the van and car. The lists were equal, and we still didn’t have a clear winner. After some more deliberating, we smartly decided to sleep on it. Besides, we thought, surely both would be eagerly awaiting us in the morning to waste our money on them. On our way back to the hostel we had to stop by Timezone, the local arcade. We battled each other on the Big Buck Safari game. The classic Daytona racing game was a big draw too. I hadn’t been in an arcade for a while, and it brought back some fond memories. We forgot about the nightmare of buying cars in Christchurch for a little while at least. We were hoping to be out of Christchurch as quickly as possible, but it looked more and more like it would be a lengthier stay.

Tuesday, April 28: I got a pretty late start, but Northy woke early and went into town to check out some phone cards and to explore on his own. I took my time in the morning to make some phone calls home and to do some washing. By the way, we’re staying at Tranquil Lodge in Christchurch, which is a 15 minute walk away from the city centre along Manchester Street. It is quite honestly the worst kept hostel I’ve stayed in so far, but also the cheapest. So while we waste some more time trying to find our heap of metal to take us around the islands, it’s worth getting what we pay for. As a bonus, Northy and I have had our own room for $34. So we really can’t complain too much. Plus it’s probably better kept than perhaps 11 Inkerman was (at times) in Guelph… The highlight of the day had to be Turner’s Car Auction. We were fed up with the two car markets, and searching the internet for our car. We found out about Turner’s and decided to check it out. It took us half an hour to get there on foot. We were classic tourists, twisting and turning a folded up map; turning and walking for a block and realizing we went the wrong way, and turning around embarrassed. The passing motorists are used to it I’m sure. We arrived at a warehouse chock full of cars. Sixty nine of them were being auctioned off that evening. We were given a brief description of the process by a woman working at the front of the auction house, then wandered by all of the cars. It was exciting to be in an auction house for the first time, having a real interest in the goods. I’ve always wondered what it would be like. They hold budget auctions every Tuesday and Thursday at 6pm. Before the auction begins, however, there are a lot of things to do. First, you have to scan the list of cars for ones that were in our price range. The cars are listed beside, amongst other things, an estimate of the price range that the car will sell for. Other information you’re given include the mileage, colour, and transmission type. Within the given price range is the reserve price. The reserve price is that which the seller is willing to sell at or above. If there is no reserve price, then the car could be sold for as little as $1, in theory. However, the auctioneer usually starts the bidding at something well over that amount, and the car usually fetches something close to what its worth, but usually under. Most of the cars being sold without a reserve price are cars given to Turner’s by the court system. There’s also a little incentive for Turner’s to auction the car at a higher price, because the house gets a housing fee with every sale. For instance, on cars selling for less than $1000, they get $100. For cars selling for more than $1000, Turner’s gets $200. We walked around the lot. Each car was in their numbered space. We had narrowed our list down to about 5 cars, and we took them each out for a test drive. One in particular stood out. It was a blue car that had 294,000kms on it, and was expected to sell between $300-$900. The body was in great shape, and it drove very nicely. We only needed it to last three months anyways. We decided we would observe the auction until that car came up, and we would bid on it. It was in space number sixty six, so we had sixty five others to observe. We nicknamed the car Mario. It couldn’t be named anything else. We figured #66 was ours… We wanted it badly. We had a cup of coffee and strategized before sitting down in front of the auctioneer just before the auction started at 6pm. All the staff looked very smart in white shirts and red ties. There were two auctioneers who shared the role of speaking, while there were about four others looking carefully into the crowd for bids. To make a bid, you simply raised your hand with your bidding card in it. Most people just made an obvious gestures or a wave of the hand. A nod towards the auctioneers even worked. When the staff noticed a bid, they’d point it out and yell “yup!” so the auctioneer was aware of it. I was careful not to itch my eyebrow or twitch during a bidding war for a BMW or something. I could have been stuck with a bill I couldn’t handle and end up working as a valet boy for years to cover my debt. The auction lasted two hours, and it was pure entertainment. I wish I had a big bag of popcorn and an oversized pop. It was free entertainment (unless you bought a car of course), and we were into it. The auctioneers were classic characters. They talked fast, and at the beginning were incomprehensible. But as time passed, and we observed and learned the process, it all started to make sense. All within a few seconds, the auctioneer would describe the make, the colour, the year, the mileage, a funny joke, insult some of the regulars attending the auction, and perhaps how good looking the car was. And that was before the bidding started. They had sixty nine cars to go through in two hours, so I guess they had to speak fast. Bids were coming from everywhere. Hands were raised eyebrows lifted everywhere. It was as if the auctioneer was speaking one continuous word as the bidding was going on. Do you remember the micro-machines commercial guy? If you can’t remember check out the youtube link, (

). It was like that, but with real cars. But these cars were bigger, but not nearly as cool as micro-machines. Nate and Malcolm could bring in some of their cool toys and get somegood cash for those things… The auctioneers were very cunning and started with a higher price than people were willing to bid on. Then, as soon as they decided there wasn’t much interest at that price, they dropped the price by a few hundred dollars. If this didn’t excite anyone, then they dropped it again. Once the first bid was made, THEN the bidding began. In some cases, the price would drop way below the lower end of the suggested price range to start, then would sell for well over the suggested range. It was very interesting to see what cars went for more, which settled within the range, and which of those dropped under the suggested price. We were gunning for those cheap ones. They were rare, but we thought we would be able to score one. Usually each car would come down to a bidding war between two people, and as it reached the end, the bids went up in increments of fifty dollars, instead of say five hundred, or one hundred dollars. Not all of the bidders were in the room; some were calling in on the phone, and others could bid on the internet in real time. It was actually incredible to watch. We recorded the prices that the cars went for, but most fell within the suggested range. A few went over, and a smaller percentage even fell short of the expected range. If the winning bid fell short of the reserve price, the sellers would be consulted to negotiate a fair price for both the buyer and the seller. As the auction went on, the prices started dropping (as the mileage went up), the crowd thinned out, and Northy and I were anticipating the arrival of Mario. Mario began its approach to the stage, and I got ready to bid. My plan was to play it cool and to have some patience. I hope my excitement didn’t show too much. After the first bid was made for $300, We bid on Mario confidently for $400, but were quickly outbid. I raised my hand again to bid at, and the price was already at $700. I bid again, hoping for $900, but three others bid at the same time, and they pointed to me and said $1200… that was too much! I shook my head madly and they ignored my bid. I rested my hand. It was the most exciting second and a half of my life… We lost that battle, but we vowed to return on Thursday. It was a learning experience, and we were looking forward to returning to get a car in a few days.

Wednesday, April 29: The weather wasn’t too promising so we packed our rain jackets in case the weather turned (which it did). We walked into town and Northy went to check if his sunglasses had turned up at the police station at Cathedral Square. I had misplaced my cellphone the first time I was in Christchurch, and it turned up. I was optimistic for him. When they didn’t show up at the first police station, he was told they might have shown up at station a few hundred meters down the road. As he went there, I stopped by the oversized chess set on the square to watch a match on it. A younger guy was playing against a much older, wiser looking man. Surprisingly the young guy took the win. Impressed, I went to sit and wait for Northy. As usual, there were a few characters wandering around the square, and they kept me occupied for a bit. I am getting tired of this city, and I’m definitely ready to move on. Northy returned, pretended to steal my bag, and he almost lost his front teeth again. I was nice enough to let him go on a warning. We were starving so we stopped by an Indian restaurant for a quick eat, and by the time we were down, it was raining pretty hard. We went to the internet café to do some more car hunting, and we tried our hand at a website called trademe. It’s the same idea as EBay. We searched and there were a few cars whose auctions were ending soon, and the price was right (under $1000). We bid on one after little deliberation. Our patience wass wearing a little thin, and we were getting tired with the process. We just wanted a care REALLY badly. Is finding a car that will last three months for under a grand really that difficult? Really? Anyways, we left the café hoping for the best. Of course, our day wouldn’t have been complete without a cultural experience. So, we headed back to Timezone, pushed our way through a few teenagers and found ourselves at the Big Buck Shootout. Northy was on his game and thoroughly thrashed me. I’ve been told before that being good at video games isn’t a good thing… but I do hope I don’t get used to losing. It sucks. And I know that even though I hate losing, Northy hates it even more. So when I do lose to him, I rationalize and comfort myself with the thought because I lost, the rest of the day will be that much more pleasant… Even though he is at times a gracious winner, and I’m mostly a sore loser. Every once in a while he does like to bring it up a few hours later just to make sure I knew he beat me. At least I still have my dignity… Right? Maybe not… After the vids we headed back towards the hostel. On the way Northy was distracted by a camera shop, and stopped to check out if his gear that he bought in Toronto had gone up or down in price. He was relieved to find out that if the prices hadn’t gone up, the items were out of stock because of their popularity. I sat down to print some photos from my Fiji trip which I plan to send to my Fijian host Bill and his family. We had a coffee at a nearby house, watched some horrible but entertaining music videos from the 80’s and 90’s, then returned to the hostel.

Thursday, April 30: Today we plan on getting back to Turner’s and place a winning bid on a car. If all goes well, we will be on the road as of tomorrow. Here’s to hoping for the best!

I figure not commenting on the swine flu epidemic that is now worldwide would be ignoring it. To be honest, we’ve thought about it a little and it has concerned us. We’re washing our hands every chance we get, and we’ll be staying away from the airports at least, and the hospitals with some luck. It is kind of disconcerting to know its close to us, and we're travelling in a country where it was detected early. Most of the confirmed cases are in Auckland, so we’ll be as far away from it as possible when we head south. It hasn’t changed any of our plans yet, but it is definitely on our minds.

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading and keeping up. I hope everyone’s doing well. We’re not exactly sure of our next stop after finding our car, but we’re definitely heading south to find some adventure… Perhaps Queenstown is next…

Cheers,

Kiwi GB

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Photos

Auckland
Taken from Davenport

Photos
Taken from Davenport of Auckland city center

Our rides
Surfboards on top

Surfing
In Ahipara. Mike and Northy are up on the same wave here

The boys
In Ahipara

Dinner with the family
At our house... for a few hours

View from the backyard
No neighbours for miles to chat to over the fence, but this view was well wort it

Sarah and Me
She was a great host. Thanks Sarah!

Our dinner
Mussels. They were so tasty.

Cultural experience
in Christchurch. We intimidated a few 14 year olds to get to this machine... just kidding!!! They were 17...