Cargill Lodge Motel Auckland

Last day in New Zealand – at least for the time being.

Two key tasks for the day:

1 shoe horn all of my **** back into my two bags so that it can be squeezed onto the flight to LA

2 go for breakfast with the Ames clan and some other friends.

Both tasks were successfully accomplished with breakfast being a culinary success as well as giving me some great insights into approaches I can look into for getting a move to ...

... Brits have won it in all it's 160-odd year history, but honestly I am chuffed when someone takes the trophy off the Yanks. Except maybe the Swiss.

Final visit of the day was to the Sky Tower, which to my mind was the only less than excellent thing we'd done so far. I am not a fan of heights and frankly once you've been up one tower, the only difference is the boast about the height. It wasn't cheap either at $25 each! This purports to be the highest tower in ...

It may interest some of my younger friends to know that I am travelling with my rubber duck, Gertie. She is a most remarkable duck, turning magically bright pink in the bath. I've taken a picture of her sitting on my rucksack ready to set out on our journey.

So far ...

... like millions of tiny fairy lights. Its hard to believe that they are actually living creatures and its not a special effect! It was only a 45 minute tour though as that was the cheapest option, and then it was time to move on...

Rotorua
The first thing I should tell you about Rotorua is that it STINKS!! OF STALE EGGS!! We didnt appreciate it really, in fact, at times we were actually feeling sick ...

... BOLTED) down the hall to the loos, arriving just in time to lose my dinner. I felt immediately better and still have no idea what caused it (though the previous night's Free Dinner is a suspect). Oh well. Jane slept soundly through all the disruptions so I got myself organised and headed off by myself...just as the rain started pouring.

I took shelter in a cafe with a cappacino and a map of Auckland - plotting my day and ...

... forest to explore. Slipped in the rain and mud a lot going uphill, but it was fun anyway. Took a lot of backcountry roads around the area and walked far out into fields. Cambridge was a beautiful place, small and peaceful, and I enjoyed my time there. Reminded me a lot of Oregon and Washington, the rainy sides. However, with my time being short over the course of this 3 month adventure, I have been on the move. It was time to head Southward to ...

erst einmal wieder ein paar bilder :) ich kann nur eins sagen,:neuseeland is der absolute hamma!:) hier ist es echt wunderschoen. aber eins ist auch noch wunderschoen,und zwar bin ich in 3 tagen schon wieder im schoenen freiburg!! freu mich drauf euch alle wieder zu sehen!:) eure ronia

...nach langer Zeit endlich wieder ein Lebenszeichen von mir! Momentan bin ich in Auckland und geniesse die sommerlichen Temperaturen im Norden von Neuseeland. ..und, um das Unglaubliche gleich vorweg zu nehmen: Ich werde morgen mittag meine Eltern hier vom Flughafen abholen und mit ihnen fuer ein paar Tage reisen. ...so lange wie es eben gut geht mit uns ;-) Sie haben sich vor zwei Wochen dann doch mal entschieden, einen Flug zu buchen und ein Hotel ...

We arrived in Auckland this morning, after an easy flight. We were able to get an earlier connection from Sacramento to San Francisco, which eliminated the knuckle biting associated with a too-tight international connection. Julie's travel wizardry got us a great room in the center of Auckland, and check ...

... feature in the parks fountain. A very vibrant atmosphere overall. Sat 7 Feb - Auckland Started the morning with the aim to get the last two weeks of my activities posted on my blog. Didn't get very far - the computers at Magic head office are archaic to say the least. The library was not yet open and then finally found a café to connect into. So with limited time as had agreed to meet Jen, (I now need to compromise) I didn't get much done at all. At least the coffee was good! Went ...