Auckland Day 1.

Airport security here is very tight and we got thoroughly questioned twice before we got to customs. We were specifically asked at the final desk if we had brought any shells or wooden masks from Fiji (which is exactly what we had in our cases) and we probably gave the most unconvincing ‘no’ they had ever heard. Anyways we didn’t expect our backpacks to have to go through another ‘Environmental x-ray’, so we thought ‘oh dear’ we’re in for a fine here. Somehow our bags went through OK! Considering Duncan had been stopped and had items confiscated at every airport so far, this was a miracle.

The bus into Auckland was really good and I was instantly impressed with the place. There seemed to be modern bars, restaurants, and cool little shops everywhere (even a shoe shop called ‘Gr8 Shuz‘ - funky haha).

The standard of even the most basic hostel here is much better than we’re used to, each having laundry facilities, internet cafes and bars. Its also weird to have other people in our dorm for a change, in Fiji it was often just me, Duncan and 4 empty beds.

Despite the early rise for our flight to NZ, we decided t get straight to it and went for a trip up the Sky Tower, which is the tallest structure in the southern hemisphere. Its basically just like the ones in Seattle, Toronto and Vegas - A big viewing tower with glass floors, expensive rotating restaurants and bars. At the base of the Tower is quite a big complex which houses more restaurants, bars, shops…….and a casino!

I didn’t expect the casino to have any poker games because most in the UK don’t. So we both had a little game on the house games. I won $35 on blackjack……but Dunan notched up a $130 win on roulette. In fact I was laughing at Duncs because he was betting the minimum ($2.50) on each turn of the wheel and I gave him plenty of grief because he seemed to agonise over every decision , despite the fact roulette has no element of skill and his bets equated to less than £1! After a while of watching the professor at work I went to the loo out of boredom. I did think to myself how funny it would be to come back to see him with a mountain of chips, or even a showgirl presenting him a oversized check for $500,000. Well, as it happens I did return from the loo to see a cheeky $100 chip in his pile and a big grin on his face. Turns out the wheel had stopped on his lucky number 17.…..shame he had just $2.50 on it J .

As we left I saw a sign to the poker section and had to have a go. I could write a lot about that but Duncans story was much better, and me outplaying everyone for a $130 poker win is the norm J .

After our big wins (in terms of what we can buy for our money over here) we went for a few beers to celebrate. We couldn’t go too far as my foot was beginning to swell up like a balloon. In one bar we spoke to a few locals and one told me a story which cracked me up. He claims that on more than one occasion he had got a taxi home after a night out drinking, fallen asleep and woken up to find the taxi driver asleep at the wheel!!!!! Apparently they work long hours and often doze off whilst driving, I’m not certain how true that is but it was so funny that I don’t really care.