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Hello readers, and welcome to the latest update from Gary's magical mystery tour! It has been a while since I last wrote - and so there are a few things to inform you all about, so pull up that chair one more time - and like all good storytellers say - i shall begin......
When I last wrote, we were still in Australia - and with one week left of our trip we made the move down the east coast, bombing down in a rental car to Byron Bay, then to Newcastle before a final weekend back in Sydney! This time we did not have the luxury of an automatic - oh no, this time back to the manual and a tiny little Hyundai Getz for us 3 hulking lads to fit inside! Nice and cosy - but not as bad as I had first feared! Our first stop was in the self proclaimmed "Steak capital" of Australia - Rockhampton - and when you consider Jammo's love of a good steak, it is no suprise this was our dinner when we arrived. This was a proper old fashioned steak house, with its own Rodeo ring out the back as well - it looked like the kind of ranch style place we are expecting to see in the USA - not east coast Australia!
It was here that we hatched a brilliant scheme - drive all night until we got to Byron bay to give us more time there, and to save on a nights accomodation! Brilliant idea! It began well, with Jammo and me taking the majority of the driving - Josh having gone out the night before and drunk himself stupid and sleeping off his hangover most of the way! In fact Josh's contribution to the drive was a 2 hour stint between 1 and 3am, and when we stopped here, a few 100k's short of Byron, Josh promptly fell asleep face first on a couch until 5am! I managed to stay awake all night, and long enough to get us into Byron at 7.30am - and once in our new accomodation we spent most of the day asleep! So not a lot gained from such a gruelling drive.......!
In Byron we enjoyed a night out at the trashy Cheeky Monkeys - although I didnt join in with the dancing on tables that seemed to be the main entertainment! After a few days enjoying the beach and the atmosphere, we headed south again - this time to Newcastle for one night - before we booked into the Wake Up hostel in Sydney. The hostel was just opposite our old flat, so it was very wierd being back in the old area once again. In fact we went back to our old flat just briefly - again a surreal experience, Sydney was not the same place for me now that people I knew were no longer there.
After Jammo and I had our names called and nearly missed our flight to New Zealand we arrived in Auckland without too much drama. We booked into Queen Street back packers, where the owner - Tom, has been bending over backwards for us with his help to find work and his general good hospitality! We are booked in here long term, and i dont see us moving for quite some time!
We all have jobs now - I was working 2 days after we landed in fact! I work thursday to sunday for Line 7 at the maritime museum in Auckland harbour - selling posh clothes to posh cruise ship passengers who just have to get their blue, red and white sailor suit numbers, or an outfit for dinner with the captain! Ra Ra!
And at night I am working in a bar and club called Zanzibar. Its quite posh, and the club itself is a really nice space - however it seems to be right in the wrong part of town, away from the trendy bars of the Viaduct area of the city - instead it is on K'Road - next to the gay bar and a subway. As a result it seems to be struggling to get a decent client base, so things are nice and quiet - i just sit there watching the rugby or serving the one or 2 customers we get in the club each night! Jammo is working at a building site, and after trying to do the same thing, Josh has moved on to work in a office doing data entry!
Finally this week we all got paid for our hard work, and celebrated by drinking quite heavily last night until the early hours of the morning! A debate ragged for most of the night about whether paella was a rice dish or an omlette - backing the side of the rice dish I knew i was right - but thanks to Sam, Keith, and Mum i got the confirmation i needed......!
I would write much about the evenings events but all i know is this. 1) we went to a retro club called boogie wonderland, and drank cocktails, 2) we all ate a lot of mcdonalds at 5/6am on the way home and 3) I woke up with a cocktail strainer and a big battery in my pocket..........
Until next time, this is Auckland, over and out!
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