Princeton Backpackers Auckland

... life being a considerably less harried than in the UK, there was a police presence (at least two)but not a riot shield or a kettle in site.

Auckland has a beautiful harbour, ideal for sampling unfamiliar New Zealand beers and eating awarding winning gelato. The Albert park is a traditional English style affair complete with statue of Queen Victoria and old fashioned fountain, very pleasant for an afternoon sunbathe.

... do you really think I would leave them here for the taking???"

Clearly I was fighting a losing battle and the jet lag fatique got the better of me....

MdeL: "Look am I going to get fined?"
BP: "no"
MdeL: "Good. Then the name is de Lautour, with a lower case "de" Capital "L". Gold star for you, now please let me get on the plane!"

;-)

... as it was basically a people carrier, which had had the back seats ripped out and a matress,hob,dvd player and some storage space fitted in their instead. It wasnt very spacious but good things come in small packages and it did us very nicely indeed!

Bay of Islands
So after the first of many bowls of noodles and an early night, we woke up early and headed up north to Paihia in the Bay of Islands. We ...

... We only had a short evening in Wellington, but this was enough time to take in a few of the city's copious bars and eateries.

The ferry being only a means to continue forward, we disembarked still with the wagon at Picton and continued onwards to spend the evening in Kaikoura. We bedded for the night in a local yokel motel, one of those where when we entered the bar, the facade donning a huge fibreglass lobster, everyone turned around in stark silence ...

This is the last of Temple's Monasteries etc, (I can hear you all saying -at last) The first photo is a viewing point overlooking Yerevan, quite a hike to the top but the views magical. The Garni Temple was fascinating (built 1st century) I think this is used for events as there was a chap playing haunting music on a recorder , lots of modern floodlights etc, but also the remains of a Roman Bathhouse with original ceramic ...

... gefahren wo wir bloed**weise eine Nacht v**bringen mussten da wir **st um halb acht ankamen. Eine Grosstadt eben, die alles hat was sonstige Grosstadte auch haben. Wegen d** guten Lage buchten wir das Base Hostel was zur selben Kette geho**te wie das letzte party-Hostel. imm**hin kamen wir puenktlich zum "Hip Hop Wednesday". Abends trafen wir uns dann mit Franzi von uns**** Ausreisegruppe zum Pizzaessen, die hi** in ...

... kebab place for a quick brunch and then onwards to the Sky Tower. As with almost any tourist attraction around, the Sky Tower also had a gift shop at the ground floor and so we are now the proud owners of several more t-shirts proclaiming New Zealand as a great place to be. Going up the Sky Tower was fast and smooth with the elevators and the view from there is quite spectacular (It IS after all the tallest ...

... Zealand could learn a lot about racial tolerance as well as good infrastructure and its maintenance! The only puzzle was the ever present and extremely tight security: every hotel, every compound has high walls or fences, some electrified, razor wire and/or broken glass on top and guarded by private armed guards! We did not encounter any crime except for the incident in Arusha (Tanzania), where one of our vehicles was broken into by professional thieves, but we ...