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Hello All! We are so so so sorry for not updating this sooner we've just been having way to much fun in New Zealand so far! At the moment i'm writing this on my own as Turlough has gone out for a run (i'll tell you why another day!) I'm sure he'll be back soon to correct my errors though!
I can't believe the last time we wrote was South America! it already seems like such a long time ago! Anyhoo, when we landed in Auckland it was about 4am and the first thing i did when i got off the plane was go straight to a toilet. Oh the joys of having a flush that works properly! It was a joy! Everything just seemed so much cleaner straight away! You could also see just how nice everyone was straight away, as even the immigration man (who normally scares me) was really friendly and telling us where to go and what to do! We had been panicking on the plane as we had to declare that we had hiking boots and had been hiking, i'd never had to declare anything in my life! We had no reason to be worried though, they just checked the boots weren't muddy and sent us on our way! It was much easier by all accounts than when Rich landed here, but i'll tell you about that later!
When we got to our hostel around 05:30 it was obviously completley dead. We had to wake the security guard up to let us in, and when he did he told us we wouldn't be able to check in until 2pm! so i found a sofa and went straight back to sleep as ever and Turl stayed up. I woke up about 9 so we went to find some brekkie as we had HOURS to wait still. We wondered up the road and found what we thought was a greasy spoon. It was only tiny and had two people working there (one cooking and one serving) but the food was amazing! Something you'd pay loads for back home, and this was just New Zealands answer to a greasey cafe! A good start aleady!
The day we landed was also a big day for the Auckland festival, so we spent the rest of the day wondering up and down the main road, Queens Street, listening to bands and looking around the stalls. It was a great introduction to this wonderful city. Even though this is New Zealands biggest city it still felt really small and wasn't overcrowded at all!
We got an early night and woke up late the next day. It was really sunny and the hostel suggested we do a boat tour of the harbour, we decided to spend the afternoon on the whale and dolphin safari as with our backpacker cards we got $50 off each! The tour around was great it lasted 4 hours and althoguh we didn't actually get to see any whales or dolphins we had a great day and got tickets to come back for free. The next time we came back for free we did manage to see some dolphins. We saw bottlenoses and there was about 30 of them! They all came right up to the boat and swam around in the waves, brilliant! However the company still gave us tickets to come back for free again so we really got our moneys worth!! On the third trip we managed to see a pack of common dolphins and got to spend ages with them! So we had three great days with this company seeing two lots of dolphins!
The next day we thought that we'd check out Aucklands sky tower. This is the highest tower in the Southern Hempishpere, apparently they just added a bit on top to beat Sydneys! We also got back packers discount so we were doing well with our money so far! I thought i'd be ok with the height as i didnt need to go anywhere near the actual glass. However when we walked in the lift we notice part of it was a glass floor! I has a little panicked but thought i could look the other way, then when the lift door shut, they were also glass!! Why didn't they warn people! I had to face the corner of the lift and shut my eyes. I was ok when we got to the top as i just clung to the middle and didn't go near the edge at all! it was really high but you get a great view of the surrounding city and the harbour.
Aucklands great as well as they have a bunch of free stuff to do, including a free bus around the city. On one of the days we got a free 'Stray' tour that took you round the important parts of the city. This took us round to Mt Eden, past a Maori village and to a memorial we've both forgotten about. We also went to the sky tower were they gave a free jump off. Turl and I were too chicken to go for it but some American guy got it and we all watched him jump off the tower! It was his last day in New Zealand so he had a great last day! We then went to Auckland bridge to watch people bungy jump off! We got to go spectake for free and Turl was too chicken to do it this time! Going to watch was horrific enough for me anyways. Unfortunatley it was a really windy day and we had to be harnessed on to the little see through path all the way along the bridge. It was horrible because i wanted to hold on with both hands but you had to have one hand on your harness. Turl was not helping with my fears by shouting "Omg its soooo high" etc. We then had to UNDO our harnesses and go up these horrible see through windy steps into the 'bungy pod' Eugh the thought makes me feel sick. It was alright in the pod however as there was actually proper floor for once. However on the way down, knowing my fear of heights Turlough ran off and left me on my own WITH THE CAMERA to walk back! So not only was i on my own at the terrible height i had to balance between holding on and holding on the camera which was blowing around my neck. I was so very close to throwing it over the edge in rage, but i managed to make it back and not speak to him for the rest of the day.
The next day when i was speaking to the deserter again we went to New Zealands only real theme park, Rainbows End. As New Zealand is all about jumping out of planes, throwing yourself off bridges and rolling down hills in giant balls, it doesn't really have any big rides. This however just meant that the park was really cheap so we were happy! There was one big freefall ride and as it was really quiet we could go straight on but Turlough would only go on it twice with me because he was too scared. It was a great day though and we splashed out to get lunch there, a great relief after living off beans on toast all week.
On the monday of the next week it was my birthday! When i woke up i opened my card and chocolate bar from Turlough (which was bought with my money) and waited for mum and dad to call! Mum and dad had been way to kind and booked us into a hotel for two nights. When we checked we couldnt believe it, it was like a palace we looked SO out of place. I thought they werent going to let us us. We couldn't check in until like three but they let us store our bags and then we headed off to the zoo! The zoo was brilliant, check my photos especially they tiger that came right up to the glass! They even had elephants there and we got to see a kiwi for the first time! Neither of us realised how big and fat they were, they're huge!
When we got back we got to get in our room and it was lovely. We had a HUGE bed with a flat widescreen tv. Most importantly though, we had a bath with a pillow! Also the joy of fresh towels when we'd been used to our travel ones. Before heading out we also went for a SWIM in the pool! We couldnt believe our luck and also went in the saunas too! In the evening we headed down to the harbour to splash out on a fancy meal down there. We sat outside overlooking the boats and it was brilliant. For starters, as we were by the sea, Turl got mussels and I got chowder. When they arrived Turls mussels were about the size of his hand and he had a whole bucket of them! My soup was giant and really thick aswell. As we'd been living off beans on toast all week i couldn't even finish my soup i was just too full! When the main course came i could eat about half my pizza and a few onion rings! Even though Turl was just as full as me he still forced his entire steak down! Check out the pictures, it came on its own plate so you cook it how you like it! After dinner and a few birthday cocktails we headed out to Father Teds the irish bar to finish the night.
The next day we were still in the hotel so we used all the facilites that we could, swimming, sauna, and even the gym as we had the chance! That night we went to the cinema as the zoo gave us 2 for 1 tickets. We went to see Marley and Me and I would highley reccomend it! The rest of this week was unfortunatley checking back into a hostel (after the lush hotel) and going down to a little stretch of beach we found. This was really nice as it was grass, then sand then the sea, but the water was aboslutley freezing!!
During the week Rich had booked his flights to come over and we were waiting for him to come over on the Friday. We'll leave it there and start a new blog though as your probably quite bored by now!
Thanks for reading and sorry for the delay! Will start the next blog now so we are up to date! MIssing you all
Fran and Turl xxxxxxxx
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