Auckland and beyond

Well, haven’t I been a busy boy?? Not really unless you count sitting on your backside for 6 hours driving to and from Whangarei. When I opened my map this morning it seemed like a nice drive to a somewhat significant town. I was right…sort of.
You see in the grand scheme of things Whangarei is a big town, but by our standards its about the size of Chadsmoor. That said it’s a beautiful place, full of little shops and cafes all set round a harbour. It was a lovely walk round, but once you’ve seen one bijou craft shop you’ve seen them all, so after lunch I had a quick stroll along the quay then came back to Auckland.
Driving in New Zealand is an interesting experience. Highway 1 evokes images of a motorway fully lit, straight as a beam of light, cutting through all in its path. What you actually get is about 20 miles of motorway like the M54 followed by something reminiscent of the A5 at Weston. With more bends and hills. For another 100 miles. I actually spent more time going over mountains than I did going in a straight line. That said when I did end up in a straight line it was s-t-r-a-i-g-h-t. Surprisingly though it was a nice drive, and with so much to concentrate on the time flew.
I have ended up with a Toyota Yaris, the smallest car I have ever had the misfortune to drive. While I can’t complain about the fuel economy it handles like a go-kart, and whilst I’m no Jeremy Clarkson, I would have to say that this is a travesty and a sore on the motor industry. Still it was at a good price so who am I to complain?!
Anyway, its time for a shower and dinner then a plan for tomorrow. I’m thinking the Coromandel but we shall see.

Matt

New country, another time change

I’m not feeling great at the moment. I think the 16 hours flying time has knocked me for six, coupled with the insane Chinese lady I had to sit next to from LA to Auckland. I wanted to sleep, she wanted to yabber on about nothing in particular, and then didn’t know which country she lived in (Germany) or which country she was born in (China).
Onto better things, today has been beautiful. Auckland is amazing, but very spread out. I walked for about an hour but didn’t get anywhere. I went up the Skytower, which is the tallest building in the southern hemisphere apparently! The views are amazing, which as you can see from the picture isn’t too far from the truth. You can actually jump off on a zip line from about 600 feet, but I didn’t really fancy that, having only changed underpants about 2 hours before!
I’m staying right by the harbour, which is nice to have a walk round, but as it’s at the bottom of every hill in the city, so as the song says “the only way is up”. This is made doubly hard by not knowing where anything is, as well as it being SCORCHIO. If this is autumn in Auckland Ill take it any day.
I confess I did have to have a nap this afternoon, purely because I felt as if I wasn’t in contact with the floor at times, such was my exhaustion. After an hour (or two) I felt much better so decided to have a walk up Queen Street, the bustling vibrant centre of the city. Except it wasn’t because today being Good Friday, nearly everywhere was closed. This was obviously repeated everywhere else I went so I went back down to the front and strolled round the harbour and along the front.
Just been for dinner at one of the only places I saw open. Its called degrees (small d) and its specialities include food served nearly raw on a slab of granite heated to about 400°C and you cut and cook it yourself. Very nice and much healthier for me (that’s for you mom). I decided to wash it down with a glass of tomato juice. Nah, only kidding, just a couple of beers.
I’m picking the car up tomorrow morning, so I’m off to decide where I’m going to tomorrow.
From the other side of the world
M