So much to say!

Have had the best couple of days with Kate.... She arrived on Monday afternoon from Christchurch and I dropped her off at the airport last night so we had a full 3 days of madness!! We hired a car on tuesday and drove up the north shore (I can't remember the names of the beaches, they've all got such stupid names!) and had a look around before going over to her old form tutor's house for dinner which was really nice.... In the evening we were going to have an early night but instead decided to go to Minus 5 for a drink, it's a bar made completely from ice and there are only 5 in the world so we thought we better had just to tick the box :) it was very funny, they dress you up in a massive coat, big boots and 2 pairs of gloves, so you waddle into the bar room, have a cocktail and leave again.... You're aloud in for 30 minutes max but it's far too cold to stay in longer haha I think it was -7.5 when we went in....

On Wednesday we decided to go for a road trip but didn't have a map so just got on highwya 1 and headed north! there are only about 4 main roads in NZ so it's pretty hard to get lost and now I'm fluent in driving automatics... We stopped off at a place called Orewa for lunch, was a beautiful beach and the roads go through the most fantastic scenery so we could have just spent all day driving round! We then headed up north a bit more... Can't remember where we ended up but there was a little bay called Shelms Bay so we posed by the yaucht club as it was obviously the upper class end of town! Everyone here has boats in their back yards as well as the tractors to pull them down to the beach, the houses were massive, absolutely amazing... On the way back we stopped at a vineyard so Kate could winetaste and we did a "sculpture walk" just to say we'd done something artistic haha it was very nice actually... Just before you get to Downtown Auckland there's a little old town called Devonport so i took Kate there for coffee before getting back to the hostel... It was a quick turn around as she had to be at the airport for 9pm so we finished her packing and drove! I'm very impressed with my driving (even if I do say so myself) as it's all one way streets in the city centre and similar I'd say to driving round Birmingham, just with a few less cars... but we got there in half an hour in one piece and it was very sad driving back on my own!

Got the car until 5pm today so think later I'll go on another roadtrip with a couple of people from my room that moved in a few days ago... Had my 1st morning at work today, was just serving coffee and tea etc for the "Breakfast Club" in a hotel on Queen Street, I think it was a load of business students that had been invited to this breakfast and there was a guest speaker etc... Lots of men in suits and it was pretty posh! Am at the Rugby Club on saturday night for the after match party which should be good as it's a pretty high profile match (The Blues v The Brumbies) though it'll be a long night and a pretty tiring one I'm sure!

It's not long until you all go off soon! Jack leaves for Europe today, for the last couple of days he's been worse than a 5 year old at xmas!! Hope you all enjoy your travels and the weather picks up soon!

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