Carrying on from Tom's first couple of days.....

We spent about the first four days still getting our bearings and finding where everything is, went for dinner at a nice restaurant down at the waterfront, being poor at the mo though chose the cheapest thing on the menu but to be fair, we would've chosen cheeseburgers anyway! Found a big supermarket, Foodtown, not far from our apartment which is loads cheaper than the convenient stores we'd been goin to! We were on a strict budget of $90 between us though, so went with a list of essentials (pasta, beans, spaghetti etc) then a list of luxuries (crisps lol, coke, juice). Did pretty well considerin it $90 is about 35 pounds, stocked up on 55c cans of beans, which is about 20p! Home brand all the way! Same with the pasta and cereal! Managed to stock up though, just need to learn to cook somethin other than jacket potato, cheese and beans or pasta and ready made sauce! But it keeps us from starvin!

Yesterday was our first proper day doing some of the sights! Got up early and went to Auckland Museum which was pretty cultural for us (and on the way in, in the revolving doors Tom did walk straight into the glass...luckily he saw the funny side)! Spent about 3 hours there, it was loads bigger than we'd thought but was pretty good! It's in Auckland Domain which is a massive park area, should be some pictures up of that! Then spent a bit of time in Auckland Domain. We had planned to go out in the evening into town, but had an offer from Alan Tom's godfather to go to New Zealand England twenty twenty cricket match! So went over to Alan's at about 5pm and he cooked us all a BBQ which was really nice, so we are getting some decent meals! Had a few beers at Alan's then walked to Eden Park which was about 10 mins away (and is where the rugby world cup is being held in 2011). We were in the terraces and luckily there were quite a few England fans being typically English, chanting 'barmy army', we were surrounded by quite a few New Zealanders though so had to keep our accents down! We won though which was pretty good, New Zealand were batted all out for 152 wickets off 19.2 overs and against our 184 for 8! So again, kept quite quiet on the way home! Had a few more beers at Alan's and chatted to his friends, one of which has said he wants to take us out in Auckland to one of the bar streets so should be pretty good!

Have had some recent success on the job front, we've contacted an agency and managed to get some work for 5 days next week, 5 hours a day doing some kind of survey! Not too sure what about yet but it'll earn us about $400 which isn't bad. Also heard from another agency and we're going for interviews on Friday to do some kind of waiting/bar work at various events so that's looking good. A plus side to not working steadily though is that we get to do the things we want! We're gonna plan a 2-day trip to Waiheke Island soon and stay in a hostel, also to the Bay of Islands which is supposed to be really good. Thursday we've already booked a boat to Rangitoto Island, it's got volcanoes and different walks so we're spending the day there, leaving at 9am and coming back at 3.30pm, should get to do some swimming in the sea as well!

Haven't got much else planned yet but there's loads of stuff we will do! And plenty of time to do it so just need to see how the working goes and what our funds are like! But we're definitely not gonna get bored! Should be some pictures up now of the past few days.