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Hello Kiwi-land!!! Arrived safe and sound on Monday evening. I got the shuttle bus from just outside the airport for $16 which I was told would take me directly to the hostels in the city centre. Despite all my concerns about leaving Australia, I quickly realised that New Zealand is actually extremely similar to Aus and the UK and straight away I met two fellow travellers on the shuttle bus who were both themselves travelling to the hostels too, which made me a feel a lot better about things. I spoke to the two of them (Nick and Seb) for the majority of the 45 minute bus journey and we all checked in together at Nomads Fat Camel hostel. Although not the most up to date hostel about, it was fairly reasonably priced and arranged as if it were a mini apartment, making it a very sociable place to be. That evening after getting our slightly dodgey free evening meal we decided to partake in the pub quiz and somehow managed to win it as well as winning best team name with 'The Indecisive' thanks to Seb! Unfortunately no mega prizes but none of us were saying no to the free alcohol either....
On Tuesday (28th) I was up fairly early to explore and discovered how cheap everything was compared to Australia, so I treated myself to a very reasonably priced toastie from a cafe to celebrate. Even things in the supermarket were much cheaper - I can afford meat again, wahoo! I took a wonder to the Kiwi Experience office to ask a few questions about it and also ended up ugrading my pass too - it was only $9 to add on the bus for Christchurch -> Auckland so I thought I might as well just in case I didn't end up getting a flight. For the small amount of money it seems worth it for the peace of mind of knowing that I could travel that part should I need to. I also went with the others I'd met to Vodafone to sort out my NZ sim card for the time I was there. Somehow managed to spend more than I was supposed to but hey, my own fault for not reading labels properly! In the afternoon we caught a bus up to K Road to go charity shop shopping for cheap, warm clothes. It seems that nobody really realised just how cold it was going to be over here! We found some very cute shops and a little explore around the town - so far very good impressions of Auckland city :) in the evening we made the most of cheapy tuesdays and went to see Hangover 3 in the local cinema followed by a night out at 'Cassette' - think that's the first time having shots from a teapot!
Yesterday (Wednesday 29th) we were suffering a little so I just took a stroll with Nick around the harbour and also decided to book on to the Skywalk up Auckland Skytower convincing Nick to join me too (it was 2-4-1 so he had no excuse not to!) and so glad we did! We did it earlier on today and although the weather looked a bit iffy originally it cleared up when we were up there and gave us amazing views of the city of Auckland. For those who don't know the skywalk is a 360 walk around the edge of the Skytower in big flourescent orange jumpsuits attached just by a couple of cords to a bar about you - here's the link for it for anyone interested, definitely would recommend it! http://www.skywalk.co.nz/ You are stood on a platform which is just crisscrossed pieces of metal so you can see straight through. All I was thinking for the time I was up there was 'how am I ever going to bungee this height?!!' It was actually pretty useful to look at other things to do in Auckland and helped with getting your bearings and sense of distances too. With the skywalk ticket you get a free entry to come back to the inside of the skytower so after our post-walk subway we went back up the skytower in time to watch the sunset over the bay and to see the city light up at night - simply gorgeous :) The views are amazing so for anyone who couldn't face the walk, definitely get yourself up there! (And you even get to see the binoculars that look like Wall-E)
In the evening after getting a little lost we decided to have a go in the Ice Bar in Auckland - a little steep price wise but I've always wanted to go in and she tempted us with a free drink so it was hard to say no! It was definitely an experience drinking from a glass made of ice and getting to smash it afterwards as well as playing on an air hockey table made entirely of ice but after about 20 minutes the novelty rubs off a little and you realise you are pretty much in one giant freezer and you are just too cold to stay in! You also had to pay extra for any photos which was a bit cheeky given the entrance price but it's one of those things you want a memory of. You also come out with a very distinct latex smell on you which you cannot remove thanks to the disposable gloves you have to wear - you're stuck with it for a few days!
Tonight we did the cheapy pub crawl from the hostel which was a good laugh with Nick and a few other guys that I'd met in the hostel. Tomorrow I'll be up early for a 7am start to Bay of Islands - my first kiwi experience bus :) fingers crossed it goes well! Amy x
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