Scoresby Manor Wellington

... bay and playing some beer pong with a Kiwi and an Australian, who we have since continued to travel with and who have become very good friends. So we have been traveling around with Matt and Lisa (British couple), Luke and Dani (Australian and English) and Steve, a Kiwi who got laid off the Friday before we met him and has been following the big green bus by hitchhiking! It has been unbelievably fun!! It's so nice to be traveling with a core group of people; we've ...

... all the movies and games on the little mini inflight tvs. We learned quickly that there are beds in first class on those airlines so of course we are hoping to get bumped to first class on the way home...

We arrived in Aukland and took a long walk to get to the domestic flight terminal which would take us to our flight that brought us to Wellington. The Wellington airport was teeny, but we were happy to find that it provided travelers with free wireless ...

... city?? Hikesd up mt victoria and got a decent grey view of windy welly. Looked for a LOTR set, but dont know if I found it. Talked with some younger kiwiw kids before watching sweeny todd. Had some McD's before watching "once were warriors" a very violent movie about poor moari's in auckland.

... tailgating. After that I stayed 'at home' the next day and did my housework. That is the downside to having your own space - chores, chores and more chores. At least with a hotel/motel you close the door behind you and someone else tidies up. I was invited in to the van of an older NZ couple who were very experienced campervanners so had lots of tips. Very kindly, Caroline invited me to stay with her for a couple of nights in Tauranga which is a lovely spot on the east ...

... the website, it was very misleading. The rooms are icky. And small. But  oh well I don't plan on spending much time in them. My roommate is nigeen. She seems really chill. After we unpacked a little bit. We went out to a pizza place for dinner. It was pretty good. Auckland is very different than Wellington. Much more city type, like NY. But it should be a good time. After dinner we came back here. And now I am so tired. I am just about to go to bed. Kia ora!     

Well at last we got the camper and set off to Wellington a long drive ahead. We drove through miles and miles of vineyards, must remember to look out for the different names when we get back to Tesco. Some of the most amazing scenery and a really really scary drive through mountains on the approach to Wellington ...

... midnight hour of 7-8 in the evening.  The shopping in Wellington is the best, especially with the exchange rate at 2 to 1.  I found the best shop too, it called Portmans... I plan on shopping at their site when I get home, such cute styles.  After shopping we got home and Helen made lasagna and we watched some more of the Summer Heights High, which is the funniest show any of us have seen in a long time.

... point de rendez vous pour rejoindre Mathieu...un fidele compagnon de voyage ainsi qu'Etienne et Karla un couple d'ami a Simon, fier propritaire d'une camping van. Nous avons donc loue une voiture ( une super Sunny de Nissan, voir la photo) qui sera notre maison pour les prochaines semaines. Ha oui ici il faut conduire a gauche, certains semblent le comprendre plus vite que d'autres!!! Et c'est la que l'aventure a debute ...

... later another penguin that looked sick along the fence. But I hope he wasn't sick and was just molting, or losing its feathers to get a new coat. A bit further down, some people were looking at another penguin that had escaped the fence and was strutting up the hill! He was a funny sight to see and did not seem to mind the humans. While two penguins were grooming each other, the girl next to me dropped her camera case down the cliff. I ...

... understanding of the real world. Also, they were scared of the mice that had ears growing on their backs. They thought the mice could escape and breed with wild mice, and form a mutant colony of mice with ears on their backs. Oh my. I had to keep biting my tongue.
Also went to a class where they talked about sailing on these canoe things. The guest speaker had done it before, and it was really cool to hear about his adventures.