New Zealand

We have arrived..!

After a long transfer (18 hour wait in Bangkok) we finally arrived safe and sound in New Zealand. First stop the North Island and Auckland. We collected our budget hire car and set off to explore.

The first few days were spent settling into another new time zone (another 7 hours ahead, now 13 hours ahead of the UK), currency (sadly not a millionaire anymore) and climate (brrrr!). We were both loving the fact that everyone did not honk their car horns every 2 seconds and they drive of the proper side of the road!

Our first full day was spent walking through Auckland and to Devonport, a lovely little area just north of the city centre, via a 15 minute ferry ride (don`t worry i managed to keep my breakfast down on this little jaunt!). We visited the local parks, museum and port. Within the space of about half an hour, Kip and I had alredy identified about 3 or 4 houses that we wanted to buy. The most impressive, just a stone`s throw from a lovely little beach.

We stumbled across an exact replica of the Cenotaph, which was a bit weird and reminded me of Remembrance Sunday.



We ended our first day, with a trip to the pub (and most probably our last) at 16 NZ dollars (8 quid) for 2 pints, we maybe heading to the liquor store and sitting on a park bench instead!

The next day we headed north for a short day trip to the west coast and it's infamous wild beaches. We visited Piha, Karekare and Bethell's Beach. All really nice, wild, open and rugged beaches full of black (iron) sand. A great first insight into this amazing place. However the site of a few locals in full wetsuits and surf boards didn`t inspire me to jump straight into the 'fresh' waters.

The only drama we encountered was smoke coming from our tyres as we headed down the steep, very twisty, turny roads (Paula you wouldn`t have liked them !).

So our first few days in NZ have been great, all the locals have been soo friendly and helpful, it is a refreshing change. I cannot wait to get to exploring the rest of the North island.