My arrival into Auckland yesterday was good and I was able to explore the city a bit. I spent a good portion of last night in the bathroom, though, and that's never a good thing! My stomach is still cramping but I'm hopeful it will ease soon as I've taken meds and ate some plain rice and tea as recommended in a travel guide. :) It also looks lik...

So, yesterday evening I was recovering nicely from the stomach cramping and was hopeful about today. I'd booked a rental car, though still at a higher rate than I'd hoped, and had decided to visit Rangitoto Island. Rangitoto is a volcanic island out in the water just off the Auckland coast. It was formed from volcanic eruptions only 600 years ag...

Llegue a Auckland a las 04.00 am despues de 14 horas de vuelo ! ansioso, con frio y muy muy pero muy Feliz !

Well been here a day, have already decided that i will most likely not come back to Auckland unless it's a passing visit to get somewhere else. Although it's a clean and big city it's still a city will be glad when i leave. we spent the day at Kelly Tarlton's sea world center which even though it was small was interesting although i still believ...

Hi possums Another day in Auckland and spent the morning going up the sky tower in Auckland city center i had some amazing views so of course i spent much of the time taking pics from every angle bet you can't wait to see them all 150 of them (only joking!!! it was only 149) i was thinking of doing the sky jump from the tower but ever since i la...

Over an hour after boarding the airport shuttle bus, and after an in-depth tour of a number of Auckland's suburbs, we arrived at the International YHA. Dreaming about crawling in to our inviting, cosy bed for a decent sleep, we were more than slightly concerned when the receptionist claimed that we didn't have a reservation! This meant that I ha...

Morgens sahen wir erst, in was fuer einer tollen Umgebung wir ueberhaupt geschlafen hatten: Vom Hostel aus sahen wir Berge, das Meer und eine riesige Sandduene, mal wieder ein fantastischer Blick! Nach einem kurzen Abstecher auf den Lookout in Omapere fuhren wir in den Waipoua Forest, ein riesiger Kauriwald. Dort schauten wir uns Tane Mahuta, de...

After a 13 hour flight, we arrived in Auckland yesterday morning at 4.40am. We'd left Santiago on Monday 27th and so lost a whole day by travelling through the international time zone! It's so strange to think there was no Tuesday 28th September for the pair of us, how bizarre! The flight wasn't too bad at all, we slept for the most part of it a...

19.20 - After checking out of the YHA at 10.00 this morning, I had some time to kill before I checked into ACB at 16.00. I mostly read but I went to draw some money out as well as spending about half an hour re-packing my day sack. When the time eventually came to go, I walked the half a mile or so with my rucksack and day sack probably weighing...

22.40 - Another long day. After a bad nights sleep due to the big bright hotel lights right outside our window and the noise from all the traffic, I went shopping. I have worked out with the money I saved before I came out here, I have a budget of $56 a week which should be enough for breakfast and lunch at least. The kitchen facilities are not ...

18.20 - Have had a fun today. I had to be up early, in time to reach Auckland where to boat departed at 10.00. The usual deal for getting there by bus. I got my lunch and then off we went. At first I thought we weren't going to see anything as we were travelling around looking for them for 2 hours without joy. The weather was ok so I sat at the ...

21.08 - Well today has been a long day. My Stray bus back to Auckland wasn't due until 17.00 so I had lots of time to kill. I did all the usual ****, a **** shower and shave then checked my e-mails in town. I spent the rest of my time mainly watching TV and hanging around. I didn't bother going to say goodbye to the barmaid in the Saltwater bar,...

18.09 - I have spent nearly all day reading! I have finished the book I bought on Monday after spending a good couple of hours in my room ignoring everyone else. Today is laundry day so I have got that out of the way. Today is also the start of my financial week where I draw all the money I will need until the same time next week. Because of thi...

After arriving in Auckland I caught the shuttle bus to Auckland Central Backpackers meeting Nick from Leeds, and Katerina from Germany on the way. We all checked in and then I used the evening to do some washing and some other riveting pursuits. The hostel is HUGE and is always buzzing with people. The place has its own travel desk, job centre i...

Arrived at the ACB (Auckland Central Backpackers), my home for the next few weeks (or even months!) at about 1am expecting a quick check-in and bed. It didn't quite work out like that as i met a guy called Andy who we've been stalking (well it seems like that, where ever he is we arrive 3 days later!) since we were in Rarotonga and we decided a ...

Well, since the last update not a whole heap has happened, but let me fill you in anyway!. Shortly after arriving Gary and Lee left (3 days to be exact!) after finding they had bugger all money. This just left the original 3 in Auckland attemting to find a job!. After 2 weeks i (we) felt that Auckland had been well and truley 'done' so we decide...

Great to be in Aoteroa: land of the long white cloud. We are ready to settle here and soak up the city. Having never lived in a city centre it was time to enjoy the novelty and convenience (although we didn't consider the noise pollution!). NZ has a great affiliation to the UK and it's so easy to feel at home. We heard more northern England acce...

Up at 5am for hopefully the last time on this trip, still it was just about worth it to make sure that we had one final use of only genuine power shower that we've had during our time in Fiji. Then reluctantly we strapped on our rucksacks and staggered to reception to pay our tab and check out (although stupidly I realised as we were on the plan...

Got up at 8am but I most admit I didn't feel well rested because I had a disturbed night, for some reason I woke up in the early hours and couldn't go back to sleep for ages. Lynne was also kept awake, for once not due to me snatching the duvet all night but because of some rather loud mattress spring noises coming from next door. Well we think ...

Auckland Central Backpackers has a bit of a reputation for being a noisy hostel, but I must admit that our experience of it has been the opposite. For a hostel that has five hundred plus beds in it, which are almost always full, it's extremely quiet. Well at least it is on the tenth floor where we're staying, in fact we've got the very same room...

Now in Auckland, staying at the Auckland Central Backpackers. Great hostel, good to be back in western civilisation! first night we went to the Globe Bar downstairs & saw someone we met in Fiji. Spent most of the last couple of days trying to organise transportation. we really wanted to get a camper but most were fully booked or way to expen...

Staying in Auckland for 1 night at Auckland Central Backpackers which is a pretty cool hostel that is in the cent re of town and has a bar underneath called the Globe Bar. Had a few drinks that night with another Aussie I met at the hostel who´s name has become ridiculously unimportant at this point :)

Well here we are in Auckland finally. We went back to Buenos Aires from the Delta for our last night of luxury in the 725 Buenos Aires hotel before heading to the airport with the folks. They were bound for Headford, but we were bound for here! Had a stopover in Santiago where we spent most of the day, playing cards and chess and getting pished....

Woo-hoo! Thank god for cheap, high-speed internet access! I'm finally in Auckland, so I can respond to e-mails again and update this site more frequently. I finished the Fiji entry, so if you only read my placeholder comments then there's much more interesting stuff on that page now. Anyway, back to my story: Beachcomber really is a very lovely ...

Luciano Pavarotti is dead. The beginning of the next chapter of my life started this morning sometime as I passed the date-line and September 6th, 2007 vanished from my life forever. Kind of a solemn start to a trip huh? The plane ride went well. Air New Zealand is a great carrier to fly with. Decent food, great staff, and all the free bootlegge...

So a lot has happened the past few days. I didn't get to nap before my orientation, so I was in a "stoned" state of mind. That didn't prevent me from meeting and communicating (poorly) with a large group of Germans. Nice people. It was about 40 hours that I went without sleep. I got my tax number (well, sent away for it), set up a bank account a...

"You'll have to excuse me, I'm Not at my best, I've been gone for a week, I've been drunk since I've left..." Went out last night with the Americans and some folks from IEP. It was the the Americans' last night in Auckland. The night started off innocent enough with us winning a contest at a local Pub. The prize was a $100 dollar tab that was qu...

Back in Auckland. Helped Justin unload his stuff. It took about 10 minutes. I kinda felt useless. I was leaving his place, sitting in my car trying to get my bearings, studying a map when I heard a knock on my window. "Do you know where you are going?" Some random guy looking in my window. This is a regular occurrence in New Zealand; people go o...

Moose is standing over the skinny guy holding a chair. I think he's really going to hit him with it. "I hope your dog rapes your chickens!!!!" I don't remember Moose's real name. He said it was "Wmphele". Actually he told me with his mouth full of beer and I didn't want to ask again, because I probably couldn't pronounce it anyway. I met Moose r...

This past week has been incredibly frustrating. Selling the car has been a nightmare. I strolled in 2 days after leaving it at the backpackers car market, and not one single person had looked at it. It made me feel sick, but I dropped the price to $2100. The next day I came in around noon. Still no bites. It was Saturday. Still no bites. So I dr...

Auckland is an interesting city indeed. It's rather big and expensive. People of all walks of life coexist here, similar to New York. Jon-Michael and I are not staying long, as we leave today for Wellington. While we did not get to see too much of the city, it's time to move on and find some work. On Monday we attended orientation, explored a bi...

Arrived into Auckland about 7pm yesterday. What hit me first was how cold it was! From one extreme to another! Got the Airbus from the airport to the centre of Auckland cost $15 about 6 GBP.The hostel is like a office block just off the Queen St the main street running through Auckland. It is clean and the facilities are good. Have done some was...

What was I thinking! It was really scary on the 1.5 meter platform! Had the most amazing views, 360' ! Glad I have done it was holding on very tight and there was none of this leaning over the edge! Even though the guide was trying his hardest to make me! If one wanted to, you can also jump off the tower!

yeh mate, ive landed in Auckland. long journey, left adelaide at 2pm, got here at midnight. so very tired.! just a quick log to say im safe and well. staying in the auckland central backpackers, pretty nice $26 a night. 6 bed dorm gonna get my sleep and figure out where i am in the world ! and see what happeneing, i know one thing i will do, tha...

So we are now in Auckland just rented a car for the next two weeks to travel the north island. We are trying (well Jen is) to book accomodation for the next few places....it's not fun there is always a problem. Too expensive, too far away, too dirty, too many bugs.......why can't life just be easy??? So get this VisaFirst/HSBC/THE SYSTEM SUCKS A...

Yesterday I gathered all my stuff and headed out on foot. I've discovered this to be one of my preffered modes of learning a city. My pack was quite heavy, so the hills here in downtown were a great workout. I found a big red backpacker's hostel building across from the Auckland City Library, near Albert Park. Have taken quite a few pictures but...

I arrived today...six hours later than expected. Missed my flight in L.A. so had to re-route through Sydney. Got to see the beautiful Opera House and Bay Bridge then took off for Auckland. Auckland is probably as hilly as San Francisco, maybe even more so...when I was on the bus I got pretty scared a couple of times praying that the brakes would...

Kia ora! that means 'hello' in maori. Well, I finally have some good stuff to write about for this entry so I thought I'd seize my small bit of free time that I have to update everyone. First off, Auckland is amazing. I know I touched on this briefly before, but now I've actually walked around the city a bit and experienced some of the culture h...

We flew into Auckland at 5am on new Year's Eve feeling very confused about the day, date and time. The 30th December never happened for us as we crossed the date line. We checked into Auckland Central Backpackers which was a fab hostel and organised hire of a camper van. We managed to meet up with Hannah, whom we had met in Ecuador, and her frie...

Pegged it into town early this morning to burn my pics on to disc before hitching to Auckland. Weirdly enough there was an error when I booted up Nero, so as a precaution, copied everything from the disc to their hard-drive, all in good time, as I then wrote the disc and found I had overwritten everything that was on the disc... Nooooooooooooooo...

Hey everyone!! Well, I'm still in Auckland, the City of Sails, and the weather finally got ******. Hopefully not for long though because I'm going on a wilderness thingy out to the west of Auckland today. I opted for the four person dorm, instead of eight, thinking it would be easier to deal with/meet three other people as opposed to seven, whic...

Hello again guys, Well, last night was the first night we haven't been out drinking. I think people are feeling the strain on their wallets going out every night, me included. I am having to budget myself to NZ$50 a day until my money clears on Thursday. That sort of equates to 20 quid!!! Anyhow, we had a good night in the lounge at the hostel, ...

Sunday April 4, 2004 Auckland Even as I waited for the plane to depart, I couldn't believe I'd be traveling half way across the world. I safely arrived in Auckland early Sunday morning after leaving Friday night; there is a 20 hour time difference! Although the flight was 12.5 hours long, I can't remember the last time I had an anxiety-free flig...

Well i'm still in Auckland, moved hostels yesterday to the much more lively Auckland Central Backpackers. Yesterday went to the musuem which was quite cool and the backpacker's car market, which made me really want to buy a campervan! Last night went to the Globe Bar under the hostel and danced the night away (not falling asleep by 10pm was quit...

So we landed in Auckland and took a bus to the center of the city which took about an hour- it literally dropped us off on Queen's St. which is in downtown of the most popular city in New Zealand- (we were both out of our comfort zone!) We stayed at Auckland Central Base for backpackers in this 13 story building all full of small rooms and dorm ...

It's the moment I've been dreading! My time in NZ is almost up and I'm really wishing I could stay here longer. I've had some crazy adventures and memorable experiences here. I left Rotorua at 10:45 and caught the bus for Auckland. Got to Auckland at around 2:30 and checked in to Auckland Central Backpackers. I went out and did a little stroll a...

Hellllllooooo from Auckland my dedicated viewers!!! This is the first travel Blog coming to you from outside of Australia!!! I landed here, the City of Sails at around 15:00 on 7th April 2008. I made my way to the hostel by a shuttle bus by a man in a waistcoat who looked like he was out of Faulty Towers, not Basil but just some random old guy l...

Well i left Queenstown 5 days ago now, and i have to say i was rather sad, i'd been there such a long time that i actually felt part of a smelly, poor, backpacker family. But apart from that it was such a beautiful place that i make a promise now that i will return there after uni, hopefully knowing how to snowboard and i'll spend the snow seaso...

Auckland, Coromandel & The Bay of Plenty Well we've gone from being tanned and healthy looking to flaky-skinned, spotty and pale... We've swapped balmy nights, where the ceiling fan is vital to get some kip, for shivering beneath two duvets in the back of a campervan... We've arrived in New Zealand and its road-trip time! We touched down in ...

Sweet dreams are made of this Who am I to disagree? Travel the world and the seven seas Everybody's looking for something I woke up this morning, not knowing where I am, totally lost on time. When I saw Juliette next to me, still asleep, my reality check began to overtake me. I just remember that I'm in New Zealand, the country that is so far fr...

Wed 29th - Sun 3rd Dec. Stayed in Auckland Central Backpackers and would recommend others to do the same. Really big and busy hostel with great facillities. Met up with McGee from home for a barbie - he´s getting on well...

I'm so bad with logging entries on road, who really has time for that anyway? anyway here is 6 weeks, Auckland to Milford sound. If at first you don't see it all, why not go again? Kiwi Escapades, Round 2. This past October I went to New Zealand for a 5 week adventure. I went with two friends I have worked with at the Creekside Restaurant; Jason...

It's off to new countries, new cities, new adventures. Our time in New Zealand has been fun and daring. We did things we have never done in our lives - Bungy jumping, flying in a helicopter, and being together non-stop for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (can someone send me a remote control with a MUTE button to shut her up)! Some of our top memo...

We finally arrived in Auckland yesterday afternoon after spending an unnatural amount of time sitting on planes and in departure lounges. The flight from London to LA was pretty good - our own screens and plenty of food and drink. Amanda managed to get through a few films, while I half-watched 2, before getting through Stardust! Despite our conc...

With 6 days in Auckland we decided to see a few of the main attractions before leaving for Paihia. On our first full day we went to Kelly Tarltons Antarctic Encounter & Underwater World. Better than your typical Sealife Centre as the underwater tunnel and a moving floor so you actually move along with the sharks and fish rather than them swi...

On Tuesday we went to see the Terracotta Army at the Sky Tower, at only 5pounds to get in, it was a lot cheaper than London!! It was really interesting seeing all the weapons and tools that have been found, but the soldiers themselves were fascinating. After such a strenuous morning, we decided to treat ourselves to a dessert in the Sky Tower ca...

Kia Ora! I am in Auckland, The City of Sails. We have been exploring Auckland and the surrounding Islands. I went with 3 girls from my hostel on a 12 minute ferry to Devonport, a quaint Victorian village. We did lots of walking and exploring the beaches and town and we hiked up Mt Victoria and had stellar views of the islands and the city. Yeste...

Well I landed at 6:00 this morning. Flight was fine after leaving at 22:30 on the 26th from LA. Altho i had a burger king in LAX because i thought there wasnt going to be tea on the plane.. but there was... and the burger king went cold really quick and it made me feel a bit funny :s im ok now tho. Slept for about 8 hours of the 12 hour flight o...