New President Hotel Auckland

Today we sailed the Bay of Islands on "She's a Lady". Our skipper was David as Glen was renewing his first aid course and certificate. We went out with two young women from Holland and Germany. We motored on the way out to Roberton Island where we anchored and hiked to the summit. After lunch you could see a squall approaching so we sailed using the wind in advance of the storm. Richard helmed "wing on wing", but there was a Scotch mist already. We dropped off Brenda and Christy at Russell an...

After we dropped off the rental car today (after almost 5,000 km in NZ), we made our way up Auckland's Sky Tower to a height of 220 metres where we enjoyed fabulous panoramic views of the city and surrounding area. We even witnessed some "jumpers" from the tower but managed to resist any urges to do that or use the bungy ride right outside our hotel. We had oysters and salmon and scallop kebobs for lunch at the fish market here before exploring the waterfront. Caught the ferry to Devonport wi...

Today was tour-on-the-bus day. We used the Explorer bus that we've used so successfully in the other cities and were not disappointed. We saw many sights but probably the one you'd least expect (unless you know Richard well) was the Alfa Romeo dealer (which also happened to be the Fiat dealer!!). We've seen many Alfas here and Richard was interested in seeing whether he fit in one. Thankfully he didn't. After seeing many of the more touristy sites ( Kelly Tarlton's Antartic Encounter and Unde...

Well we made it. The flight was delayed so we didn't fly out until about 10 i think... The plane had lots of cool features like games, new movies, tv shows..I watched Mamma Mia fot the third time then watched a few tv shows before watching the plane land. As we were delayed we were served brunch which was scrambled eggs in a weird sauce which i didn't eat but they had a few nibblies which i ate instead. Once we were off the plane i had to go through customs as i took my riding boots & cha...

Today, I successfully arrived in Auckland, New Zealand, in the early afternoon. Although being very tired because of having a very short night, I spent the rest of the day with walking through the city (but I had an easy start with my hotel being located very central). Tomorrow my tour with the bus of the Magic Travellers Network starts early in the morning, and when I come back on Dec 20 it's gonna be late, and on Dec 21 my flight back to Australia, to Melbourne, is again very early in the m...

Before returning to Auckland today, we passed several small towns with the Magic Bus. Amongst them also 'Paeroa' which became famous because of the lemonade 'Lemon & Paeroa' (which these days belongs to the CocaCola company). I kind of like this drink. But we didn't do any stops anywhere (except for short toilet stops). And then I suddenly was back in Auckland. It was not too late in the afternoon, so there was some time left to give the city another visit, and to see some places I didn't...

Right now i'm waiting until i can check in to the Best Western President Hotel. I've been waiting for 3 hours and still have a while to go, it's incredibly boring. I won't have as much internet access if any over the next week so updates will be less frequent. Tomorrow i might be meeting Lizzie again while she's back in Auckland. Sunday i don't know what i'm doing and Monday i'm off to the farm until Friday. Hope everyone's good xxxxx

Yesterday i moved just up the road to the Best Western President Hotel so here's some photos.

It was great to catch up with some old buddies again, but now it's time to go solo. In the next 4 weeks I'll either meet lots of cool new people, run in to people I know by strange coincidence or be a bit lonely and isolated. Catch a morning plane to New Zealand today for the short flight to Auckland. I look forward to seeing Auckland again after come here in 1990. From what I remember the airport was very nice, but this time I will actually leave the building and spend a couple of days explo...

So the flight from Rio to Auckland was a gargantuan one. We first had to get to Santiago, Chile via Sau Paulo before boarding the flight to New Zealand. We left Rio around 3pm on Oct 28th, we arrived in Auckland on Oct 30th at 5am. Hence "the day that never was". We didn't experience a 29th of October this year. Gone forever, lost. Howevern this does mean that one the way back we're going to get one of the days twice, or "Ground hog day" which will be nice. Due to a cunning use of sleeping ta...