Last stop in New Zealand

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Trip Start Dec 31, 2006 Previous
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  Auckland, New Zealand
Thursday, August 30, 2007

We caught an early bus to Auckland and after a short trek to the hostel we checked into our twin room which was basically a 2 bed dorm with bunk beds!!!! it did have ensuite though.  After lunch we headed stright to Lan Chile to sort out the rest of our flights after finally getting across what we wanted he told us to come back in an hour and a half.  So we went to the tourist info to check out public transport and then went up Aucklands sky tower and to check out great views over Auckland.  Alas the lift up had a glass floor where you could see down the whole lift shop which is something I (Aimee) didn't like.  Once out of the lift we had a wander around admiring the view though not the one beneth our feet as there were more glass floors which freaks me out I don't want to see what I am walking over thank you very much.  As 1 1/2hours had passed me headed back to Lan Chile's office to finally sort out and pay for our change in flights, even managed to book our flight home too ;-(  After this we couldn't quite believe we would never have to worry about our flights again!!!We walked around a few shops and then had a cheap tea and a beer in the hostels cafe before hitting the sack

Spot of geocaching

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Next morning we hit the weekend market in the main square before sussing out the link bus to take us to the brewary.  Unfortunately the driver didn't understand us when we asked if it was the long or short way round and it ended up being the longest, taking ages and making us late for our tour!!!!  After trouble getting in the door, we joined our tour and listened to mannequins explain the history of Red Lion brewaries to us.  Next we went into the lift and up to the hops room to learn about hops, then to another room to learn about barley.  Next we watched a video on how beer is made (We naturally knew all this after several brewary tours).  Next was a room which showed how a bar looked in New Zealand in 1960`s until this point bars had to shut at 6pm only giving people an hour after work to down a beer.  The tour contiued through another couple of rooms teaching us about the advertisement of the beer and also the social aspects of beer.  Finally we made it to our 2nd most favourite bit of the brewary tour the bottling line which was woeking and still fascinates us.  Finally the best bit of the tour arrived - the beer tasting and we got to pour and drink 2 of our own beers hoorah.  After purchasing some merchandise we got the link bus back into town and put our photos in to go on CD.  After lunch in the glorious spot of bench by the side of the road we went shoppping for our last bit of New Zealand tat in the local market before having tea in a random cafe at the base of the sky tower

How much fun with matching stripy thermals?

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Next day we were up early for our trip to Waitamo caves to see the glowworms.  Our driver on the way kept pointing out various sites when all we wanted to do was sleep.  We stopped at one of the main battle sites between the Maouris and the europeans for a break.  Once we got off the coach we were hoared towards a large group for our tour of the cave with our guide who looked very much like Bill Oddie.  We walked along a paved floor with electric lighting which we found rather bizarre.  We walked past some staligtites and staligmites and a large cavern where choirs often come in and sing due to the great acoustics, it was a beautiful and rather large cave.  Next we got onto a boat whith the guide pulling us along by a rope!! There were hundreds of glowworms lighting up the dark cave it was amazing.  At the other end of the cave we got off the boat and had a quick nosy at the gift shop and then got back on the bus briefly before getting off again to have ´´packed lunch¨ at the big apple reataurant where we saw for the first time that you actually grow the kiwi fruit on a vine.  On the way back to Auckland the bus driver played around the world in 80 days on dvd and was so engrossed in it when we arrived back in Auckland that it was a few minutes before he let us off the bus.  We went to pick up our photos before going out for a middle eastern for tea with our byo wine, we only just got a table as it was a weekend (we tend to forget what day of the week it is), the food was very nice

This much!

.  After tea we went to the Minus 5 bar where everything is made of ice but silly woman wouldn´t let us in as we had no id on us, apparently everyone in New Zealand under 30 must have id!!!!  Therefore we had to nip back to the hostel and get our id.  Once back again we paid ot have 2 drinks in the bar, we were given very bif coats and 2 pairs of gloves.  Once inside it was vey cool the bar was made out of ice, there were loads of ice sculptures including one out of the Eiffel tower (see photo), even our glasses we drank out of were made of ice.  Our free drink was called frozen envy and was green which worried me it tasted very apply, next we gould choose I had a pina coolada and Sarah had a Blue Steel.  After pics we left to go next door to Lenin bar for a couple of drinks in the warm where we could watch people in the cold ha!!! We decided to go back to the hostel bar for a bundy rum but there was no one there so we didn´t stay long.  We tried the other hostel bar but there was a massive queue to get in so we went for a maccas instead.

The following day we had a lie in and caught up on Home and Away before finding a food court for lunch and shops to get a last few bits for South America.  Handily there were two  geocaches nearby, so got those no problem. We went to a lovely thai restaurant for our last meal in New Zealand. Before returning to our room for a foxy modelling session in our new stripy thermals - we rock!!

The view

!  Next day we got up early and took our boxes to the post office to post home hopefully for the final time, but never say never.  After brekkie we did a couple more geocaches with no gps as it was safely packed.  The 2nd was the best as it was at Britomart station, where you could look through giant portholes and see the underground trains below.  After a quick look in a funky urban shop we bought cookies and sat on a bench watching people cross the crossroad diagonally - why don´t we do that?  Then it was time to go to the airport, we went and got our bags and hopped onto the bus to the airport where after some difficulty we exchanged some money and paid our departurre tax.  Again it took us a while to check in as they werent picking up our ticket as an eticket, once finally through we wandered around spending our last bit of New Zealand money before boarding our flight to Santiago, Chile.

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

Highest tower in the southern hemisphere	View through the floor	New Volcano	View down the lift shaft
Hmm beer	Look at the concentraion	No i´ve not split any beer	01 Cool, approx minus 5 cool!

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