Whilst flying to New Zealand, we crossed the International date line which meant that we had no 4th November. It was all a bit hard to get our heads around, on top of having to adjust from being 6 hours behind the UK, to 12 hours ahead. Darren thought maybe he would arrive in New Zealand before an email he sent to the UK 10 hours previously would be delivered!
As soon as we arrived in Auckland we noticed the similarities to England, and after 10 weeks in South America, the familiarity was very comforting. Just in the time it took us to get from the airport to our hostel, we lapped up the queen on the banknotes, being able to speak in English (although it took a while to get out of the habit to saying Gracias to people!), toilets that you can flush paper down, right hand drive cars, smooth roads, the sense of calm and order, green fields, and the absence of rubbish strewn along the roadsides.
We got to New Zealand on 5th November, and were keen to see some fireworks. It just so happens there was a free display at Auckland harbour so down we trundled in the evening, buying some alcohol on the way (in normal Lewes bonfire style!). It was drizzling when we arrived so we sheltered under the roof of a toilet block and drank our wine out of nicked plastic cups - how salubrious! After some confusion over where the display would be (there seemed to be lots of people letting off their own impromptu displays in car parks and out of office windows) a loud explosion marked the start of the official display and we realised we were facing completely the wrong direction! We stampeded to the right place with all the other misguided people, and enjoyed a fantastic display which included loads of new firework types we've never seen in the UK before.
Auckland has no fewer than 48 extinct volcanoes and on our second day there we set off to walk up two of them. We caught a superfast ferry across the harbour to Devonport, a quaint leafy suburb bursting with Victorian and Edwardian buildings, which feels like it hasn't changed much since those times. From the boat we looked out for the volcanoes but couldn't see anything obvious - just a couple of grassy hills rising slightly above the rooftops. Slowly it dawned on us that these were the volcanoes. Oh. Well, it made for an easier walk and there was a nice view from the top (the district is quite flat, apart from the occasional volcano masquerading as a pimple) across the city and the harbour area. We saw hundreds of yachts dashing about in the waters, explored the abandoned military defence bunkers and watched the swallows darting about in the sky.
On our last day we visited Auckland Museum. It is absolutely vast and after 4 hours there, and reading the equivalent of a dissertation about the displays, we were ready to collapse (and vowed not to do another museum for some time!). Highlights included a Maori cultural show (singing, music, fighting, stick games and poi, the latter which Angie got up on stage to have a go at), a 25m long maori canoe, elaborate polynesian wooden carvings and a holocaust section giving stories of NZ survivors.
Having not managed to go to the cinema at all in South America, we wanted to book tickets to see Charlie and the Chocolate factory. When we got to the cashier, he told us that we couldn't pay money for tickets as the film was parts of the Cannes festival. Disappointedly, we asked if there was anyway we could come by tickets. Oh yes, he said, you just have to bring in a can of food! It took us a while to work out that he wasn't winding us up. We did indeed get in with a tin of soup and a tin of pineapple chunks as parts of the Cans festival (the food gets donated to a homeless charity). Bargain.
On our last night in Auckland we treated ourselves to dinner at the Sky Tower. This is the tallest structure in the Southern Hemisphere (330m) and we ate in the revolving restaurant about 2/3rds of the way up. All rather posh with tiny portions, but we had some vouchers that allowed us to claim a free glass of wine, so that made us feel better! Was a bit confusing though as only the part of the floor where diners are seated rotates. The central bit where the kitchens and lifts etc are doesn't, obviously. This meant that while in the toilet, your table merrily continues its orbit and you have to go off searching for it when you come out.
We're back in hostels now after 6 weeks of staying mainly in 3* hotels on our tour so it all feels a bit grungy, but homely. Our first hostel was a proper hippy place with some atrocious purple paint effects on the walls and little collections of stuff all over the place eg shells, origami, dust. It was quite sociable but there were lots of germans there so we didn't get most of the conversation. In the kitchen one morning we got talking to a german girl who was about to try a full English breakfast, and specifically, baked beans for the first time. She asked us how to prepare them and we gave her all our tips for the perfect beans. She was very amused about her food, saying she had never had a salty breakfast before!
We think we're really going to appreciate the ease of travelling here after our time in South America. However, things are obviously much more expensive here. It's a bit of the shock to the system. It doesn't help that the area we are staying, Parnell Road, is really posh and the high street is lined with boutiques, organic butchers and bridalwear shops. We went to the local supermarket and felt like we were in Waitrose. But they did have veggie bacon so money was no object!
Auckland Hotels
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