Auckland,
North Island,
New Zealand
Monday, November 27, 2006
Hung around the hostel this morning waiting for Lee's clothes to dry as they got soaked in a rain storm last night. Luckily mine were all dry and I'd taken them in. Once we'd had breakfast and got sorted we grabbed a taxi to take us to Base, our home hopefully for our last remaining days in NZ. We checked in but couldn't get into the room till 2pm so locked our luggage in the storage room then headed back out into Queen Street. We walked down to the whaft and had a look around there, I did want to go to the maritime museam but it was really expensive to get in so we had a wander around outside, looking at all the boats in the harbour. Some of them were so posh, really glam and glitzy. It must cost a fortune to own one of those and have it moored here. Just around the corner were posh, posh flats that over looked the harbour. It was a lovely area but my god did you need some dosh here. We had a nosey around all the boats, picking out our favourites and wondering which ones you could sail around the world in then headed to a waterside pub for a few drinks. It was quite a nice day again so we sat in the sun and read the papers with a beer. We headed back to Base in time for 2pm, grabbed our bags and then headed to our room. I was really excited because I've heard loads about Base and we'd booked a double room, ensuite with TV which they made sound lovely over the phone. I was looking forward to relaxing and getting to see some of Auckland finally. However, when we got to our room it was awful. It looked like a mental hospital room. The walls were painted in an off white colour and were dirty with scuff marks smeared arcoss the walls. The bed was kitted out in hospital white sheets and was a double with single bed over the top, a 3 bedded bunk bed. Where your head went there was single bed going across the top. Which meant we were in serious danger of knocking ourselves out on the bar that came across should we get up in the night and forget it's there. You couldn't see the tv from any angle and there was some sort of soft stool in the corner, which I assumed you held against the wall when you wanted to bang your head on it. The room didn't have a window either, it just had a little sky light several meters above in the roof, which just added to the mental hospital feel in such spot on way. The 'ensuite' bathroom was the smallest bathroom every and there was no way you could brush you teeth in the sink, it was so small, let alone try and wash. I was so disappointed, but glad we'd only paid for one night so far. Lee tried to have a shower but as he got in the doors fell off, we managed to get them on their runners again enough for him to have shower and even though the room was a double it only came with one small towel. I wasn't sure if this had been left as a mistake because towels cost $5 so I didn't say anything in case they charged us. I'd just been fleeced $10 for our luggage storage so I didn't want to fork out for anything else. I was gutted to be honest, there was no way we were going to stay here, it was costing us a fortune for the room and it simply wasn't worth it. We didn't stay in the room a moment longer than we had too, it was too depressing. So we headed up to Queen St for a couple of happy hour drinks and then found ourselves in the casino again.
We both signed up for cash games, Lee got on the table first and then I joined him, it's the first time we'd been on the same table. They didn't seem to mind though and again, I didn't disgrace myself at all, in fact I think I took a fair few dollars off of Lee as well. That's serves him right for betting into me when I've got the goods. I managed to make a full house on the big blind with a 6 and 4, which no one suspected and my pocket bullets (Aces) made a house later on as well, so I came out about $270 up after paying for food and drinks all night again. We left around 1am I think, Lee hadn't done so well so wanted to go home. I felt bad about winning his money so treated him to a pie, a couple of banana's and a bottle of water for the walk home. Neither of us wanted to go back to Base but we didn't really have much choice. As predicted Lee smacked his head on the bunk beds and we decided that tomorrow we're moving to the Circle plaza.
