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As I said before, soz for the delay in these journal entries buddies!!! I have been a busy bee of late, but I am trying my very best to update you now!!!
I hope that you are all ok and well, as always!!!
Right, well.....I arrived in New Zealand in the early hours of the 7th...even though I set off on the 5th at 11 o clock, and had only actually been on the air for 13 hours.....its all a bit of a mind f**k, but apparently, I crossed the date line, so thats why...($%^*&^&). I try not to think about it too long, or my brain starts to hurt....lol.
At the airport, I managed to get away with not paying the airport tax, that Mum and Paul told me I had to pay, because I didnt see a desk for it. When I went all the way through the airport and to the gate without paying, I thought Id better ask the lady at the desk where I should pay, because I didnt want to get in trouble for not paying, but she said that I didnt have to pay, because the cost was included in my ticket!!!! Which, therefore means, I smell a rat!!! Mum and Paul(and numerous other unsuspecting travellers) were swindled!!! BEWARE ALL FELLOW BUDGET CONSCIOUS BACKPACKERS...ITS A SCAM TO RELIEVE YOU OF YOUR HARD EARNED BUDGET!!!!!!
Its quite a lot to be swindled out of, too, as its 15 pounds each. Which may not sound that bad, but when youre hardcore backpacking, and living off a fiver a day, thats 3 days budget!!!!!
Anyway....
The flight was alreet, I suppose, apart from my attempts to get an isle seat failed (I prefer them, so you dont have to clamber over people to get out, and you can stretch your legs out.Besides, it was a night flight, so its not like I was going to miss any scenery or anything interesting out of the window!) I managed to stay awake for a good 5 hours playing "Who wants to be a millionaire"on the in flight entertainment,although I did feel like the very life force within me was being sucked out through the earphones that I was wearing...) in an attempt to beat the jetlag, but when I eventually went to sleep, after a while I had a really funny turn, which was a bit scary, because I was having hot and cold sweats, and felt really dizzy, for some unknown reason. (I think that it may have been the noxious gases that the old guy next to me was letting off....stinky b*****.)
After the exceedingly long journey, I arrived in New Zealand at about 2am local time, to a frenzy of customs and oficials asking me if I had any honey in my bag (^&*%%$$) and if I was wearing the shoes that I had on when I went Horse Riding!! (I had to declare it on my immigration form).
Because New Zealand has such a complex and delicate eco system, they have really tight allowances on what you can and cant bring into the country. You cant bring any fresh food, mud, fresh water, etc,as it may cause an outbreak that could damage the nature here...and of course they dont want that now!! But I did have a little internal giggle, as it seemed that you could be any old Tom, d*** or Harry, they werent actually that bothered who you are as long as YOU DONT HAVE ANY SOIL OR HONEY!!!! lol.
OK, that may be a little exaggeration, they do check your passports, but on the immigration forms its like,a whole three quaters of it is dedicated to all the restricted items, etc, then who you are and what you are doing in New Zealand is squished in small letters into the corner!!!hehehe.
Anyhow, I got through customs and baggage relatively quickly, and into the Shuttle that was taking people to their accomodation...but, typically, I was the last one to be dropped off, as I was meeting Mum and Paul at some completely random B&B that the driver had never even heard of....
So, I arrived there at about 4.30 am, to Mum and Paul who kindly stayed awake to let me in, anticipating my arrival. (awww) We sat and chatted for a while, and Mum told me that I had missed a rather hilarious, if rather frieky incident of her being flashed by a naked man in the communal bathroom (%^&#@$) and what else her and Paul had been upto in the past few days.
After a little kip until about 9ish, we had breakfast....Crunchy Nut Cornflakes!!!! (hallelujah!!! HALLELUJAH!!!) That Mum had kindly purchased for me, and then we headed off to the centre.
We walked around for a while, and then went into the shopping centre food court, where I had a lovely curry. Mum got done off some security guard for using her camera though, because apparently, they are prohibited!!(Wierd!)
On the way out,we stumbled accross a stall thingy, that had some of those Chinese photo machines in it, the ones where you get stickers out of them...and we decided that ity would be a laugh to have a picture done.....
A laugh is probably THE BIGGEST UNDERSTATEMENT of the year...as we were promptly man handled by a Chinese, over zealous, amateur photographer, who took it upon herself to "improve the composition" by pulling at our here, and grabbing us by the faces!!! We were laughing so hard that I nearly wet myself...but she just carried on, oblivious!!! At one point, she wanted Mum to crouch down, to fit the 3 of us in the picture better, and pushed her on the top of the head. This caused Mum to laugh so much, that her legs actually gave way, and she ended up on the floor in a heap!!!
We didnt actually like the bloody pictures that she was taking, but they had so much comedy value that we basically had to buy one, even though it was quite expensive!!!!
Then, basically I was just knackered because of the journey, and went to bed early!!!!!
First impressions of New Zealand, (from what Ive noticed through my bleary,sleep deprived peepers) is a good one!!! I think that I will like it here!!!
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