Lantana Lodge International Backpackers Auckland

Monday 16/11We are now in Auckland, we have now found ourselves somewhere to live, and sorted out most of things we need to, just need to find some jobs now, I'm going to leave the blog for now and doubt I'll update it much unless we go places.
We are going to move into our new place on 19th November and can't wait!

John: We have arrived-- leaving Seattle on Dec 2nd and arriving in Auckland 2 days later. Thats what happens when you cross the international date line, everything gets screwed up. First up a few vital stats about the "big smoke" -- it's 1.2 million people big, holding roughly 1/3 of NZ's population, it's a sprawling mess much like the central puget sound area, has great neighborhoods much like seattle and has all the trappings of a big city. But let's face it you don't come to NZ to taste th...

We flew into Auckland a couple of days before new year. As we are in NZ for a couple of months the plan is to buy a campervan and drive round stopping at campsites along the way. The hostel we are staying in (http://www.lantanalodge.co.nz/) is superb and a world away from other places we have been. Incredibly clean, and a good location in a peaceful suburb. First aim was to find a van. There are plenty of adds placed up on the noticeboards of the hostels, but we got advised to go to the backp...

After a fantastic time in Rotorua, we headed up the road and passed by the Giant Kiwi fruit on the way to Waihi where we were staying for the night. In the morning we got up and headed for the Firth of Thames where there is a protected wetland where we went for a wander and saw some cool birds (we saw an Australasian Bittern!!!). Unsurprisingly, they had a giant Oystercatcher statue on the coast so we had to stop and take a photo of that. We then had an amazing lunch of Fish and Chips at app...

“Your true traveler finds boredom rather agreeable than painful. It is the symbol of his liberty - his excessive freedom. He accepts his boredom, when it comes, not merely philosophically, but almost with pleasure.” - Aldous Huxley

The past several days, almost a week, have been a bit boring. First it was waiting in Christchurch, now it's waiting in Auckland. Auckland is sort of neat, but I haven't found anything in it to just grip me or get me really interested. It rained ...

Let's see. My night alone was great. I caught up on a ton and got to relax. Plus, Tom O'Toole and I got to bond a little as we were the only ones that didn't go to the party. When we left Beechworth he told me he felt like he got to know me the best. I was touched! The girls and Peter finally came home and so we decided to head into town. We went to the Burke Museum and learned more about the history of Beechworth. For those uninformed, Beechworth had a population of 60, 000 during the gold r...

Waitomo Caves

Tonight is our last night in New Zealand I am definitely a little sad. So far new Zealand has been my favourite and I know I could spend a lot more time here! I'm getting excited for Vietnam though mixed with anxiety as I'm not quite sure what to expect! Since Kaikoura we have made our way back up to the North Island. We took the ferry to Wellington where we spent a couple days. When we arrived we discovered that the hostel we had booked had our dates wrong so we went off to find a new one. W...