Hi there from Auckland - I do hope you've had a good day.

I arrived in Auckland on the 27th June - my birthday! This was after a long, long, greulling (did I say long) 24 hour flight via LA. I am so pleased I won't be doing that again, as I'll be flying in the other direction in much shorter bursts from now on... On arrival I thought I would try to battle through the jet lag and just try to force my body to get into the timeline of New Zealand. I failed miserably - I feel asleep within 5 hours of arriving at my hotel, and stayed asleep for the next 9 hours - a sleeping record for me.

There is not too much to report in these first couple of days not only because of my tiredness, but also the weather here has been quite rough - think South/North Wales or the North of England or Scotland, perhaps Aberdeen - it has been wet and windy - with no let up for 2 days. Today was the first sign of blue skies. I'll forgive Auckland though as it is their winter.

I've found my way around the town quite easily. Perhaps its my London attitude, but it seems quite a small city. Auckland has a population of a million people, and certainly on arrival here it felt incredibly quiet. There are only 4 million in the entire country and in a country of similar size to the UK, some areas are probably going to seem deserted. The locals seem very friendly and helpful in general. Perhaps I'm wrong, but having met a few New Zealanders in the UK, to see New Zealanders on their own patch they seem quite conservative in comparison. Its also a much more diverse population than I thought it would be. I was expecting people of Maori descent and a European population, but have been suprised to see a large section of the population from various parts of SE Asia, Japan and even the Indian sub-continent. Perhaps this is not the case throughout the country, but time will tell.

I'm doing most of the trip in low cost budget hostels. Again, so far, so good. The hostels have been of pretty good quality, and I've not met anyone I've not liked or felt some warmth about. So far I've met people from Tokyo, Seoul, Amsterdam and Kidwelly (South Wales). Though most people are in couple or groups, there is a little more openess to communicate and this is one of the more pleasing aspects of hostel living - in regular hotels there seems to be a reluctance for people to speak to one another almost like the 'perceived wealth' needed to stay there, means you've paid not to communicate with those around you. It all seems a little more egaliterian in these hostels.

The opportunites to see much have been limited by the weather and tiredness, but I have managed to get a handle on Auckland's layout and visit a few places in Auckland in the process. I've visited Auckland Museum - quite an interesting place with a lot of diverse sections in it; an aquarium, which was very sweet (and really aimed at kids with their parents) where I saw penguins (I have great footage of them swimming, which I'll try to put on the video page if I work it out how its done); and The Sky Tower, which was very cheesy and tourist-y - but had to be done. It did, however, provide some decent pictures.

Tomorrow I start touring the country. My plan is to get through a large section of the north island and then down the west coast of the south and back up towards Christchurch.

If you got to the end of this entry, have a look at the next one... x