Waiwera Holiday Park Auckland

Well, we are finally here. The flight was tricky cos from Bangkok to Sydney, it wasnt quite long enough. I only managed to watch 2 films and then realised that we had 3 hours to sleep...... and then couldnt!!!

Sydney airport was nice, the food from Bangkok was pretty good (although flew BA rather than Qantas) which was nice:) The leg from Sydney to Auckland was Qantas though.

Arrived here and ...

... and headed to the Air NZ customer service counter. We must have surprised the guy manning the counter because he seemed mighty confused when we told him we were on NZ14 to Raro but had missed it. A quick phone call and we were being escorted into the Koro Club (like The Qantas Club). As we were walking he explained the flight hadn’t left but we had to hurry.

We’d filled in arrival cards for NZ with ...

... lives. He also wrote a song for Crowded House called Kare Kare which is, like, really good and stuff. I thought it was pronounced Carry Carry until we actually started asking for directions to the place. See my heroic photographs from there. Martin went for a swim but I just looked heroic. They shot some of the scenes for the film The Piano there as well. Oh, and in Auckland I saved a woman's life. Yeah... I should probably mention that. I was in the hostel kitchen making a ...

... Entertainment NZbo
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Auckland, North Island, New Zealand nzbo

... left.

Auckland is full of oriental restaurants, in the city centre the majority being Sushi bars or Thai. There is a large Oriental population here, we found one "food alley" which consisted of Korean, Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Malaysian, Indonesian and one burger bar.

Went back to the hotel for a quick nap at about 4pm but ended up sleeping through till 3am the next day.

... Snadi kone, kaikille omat telkkarit ja kivan makuset safkat. Aucklandissa oltiin ilta yheltätoista ja varattiin kentältä hotelli, mikä osoittautui erittäin siistiksi. Saatiin viel joku isompi huone, luxusta! Hotellilla oltiin vast joskus yhden aikoihin yöllä ja sit pitikin ruveta pesemään pyykkiä. Onneks hotellilla oli pesukoneeen käyttö mahdollisuus, joten väännettiin 2 koneellista pyykkiä, kuivaajan kanssa ...

... it but instead i just said "good luck little buddy" as i rode off and left it. Quite a massive hill just before Rotorua allowing a nice coast down and across the last few kms into town. Went to the TIC for a map of all the backpackers hostels and met a yank outside there that was riding the other way. He'd had a great night camping somewhere in the Karangahake gorge, really recommend a walkway there and something about riding through an old railway tunnel. I can remember walking ...

... of $400. Not ideal at all but at least it's not $1500. I rouse Kim eventually as she seems especially dopey this morning and we get on our way by 10am, journeying into the nearby Hamilton. We do get slightly lost on the way in which doesn't help but we arrive at the garage by 11:30am and get chatting to Marcus who is the kiwi guy we have been referred to. He chats away, more interested in our travelling than the repairs and talks about his experiences overseas before finally inspecting the ...

... all that up.  Little while later my house mates comes over and I introduce them.  I explain what we were talking about and my house mate laughs and rolls his eyes.  Time to go is what he says.  We all leave and my house mate starts cracking up, you really think he is all that ****?  He asks.  Yea, I thought, although perhaps I am slightly  gullible,  I bet he is like some ex-navy seal that could kills us in 20 different ways. We get home.  My flat mate just ...