Auckland

Arrived in Auckland and the weather fortunately seemed to stay with us. There were no campsites in the centre so we had to stay about 30 minutes outside on the North Shore. The first night we decided to just stay local and have a nice meal and some drinks. The next day Nath decided to get his barnet cut (it was pretty out of control by this time), then we caught a bus into the centre to meet up with Rich Hughes, one of Naths friends from Orange, who was travelling. Stace was very amused at the nicknames they have for one another - Rich is Cueball, due to his bald head, and Nath is Big Gay Bear - heehee!!!

Cueball and Big Gay Bear

Met up with Rich and went for a few beers on the harbour before we all headed up to the Sky Tower. Went to the top of the tower (which is 8 metres higher than the Effiel Tower) to check out the view. It was pretty amazing, although Nath started to get dizzy as soon as we got out of the lift. As we were admiring the view, some bloke suddenly appeared in front of us outside the window, suspended from a wire. He was doing the Sky Jump, which is a wire base jump 192 metres to the bottom! We decided we'd had enough action already so we gave it a miss (nothing to do with the copious amounts of alcohol we'd already consumed).

Sky Tower and the Views from within (look closely at the last one and you can see the guy Sky Jumping)

One of the weirdest things to try and get used to is all the Christmas decorations around the place - its like its the middle of summer and they couldn't be bothered to take them down (I'll have to get out the Xmas album on the IPOD to get us in the christmas spirit before we get back).

The Sky Tower Xmas tree (just like the one in AXA centre...not)

Anyhow, got down from the tower and met back up with Rich who took us to the Asian quarter to get some food. We then left Rich, who was meeting up with another mate (we'd arranged to meet him again later in the night) and then went to meet up with another one of Naths Orange mates Mike Nichols (Uncle Mike to those that know him), who'd emigrated to Auckland last year. It was really good to catch up and have a few beers with him and hear all about life down under - he's clearly loving it here. Unfortunately he had to catch the bus back home which would take him quite a while, so couldn't stay out too late.

Big Gay Bear and Uncle Mike

We said our goodbyes and decided to go and check out a bar that Rich had recommended earlier, called Minus 5 - basically its a huge freezer box thats been made into a bar (very James Bond) - and everything is made of ice - literally, including the bar, the seats and even the glasses you drink out of! We had to gear up in 2 pairs of gloves, boots and a massive jacket before we were let in (it was that cold). We ordered a number of cocktails (which were great) and had lots of fun taking stupid pictures around the ice sculptures, before the need for warmth took over and we headed on up to meet up with Rich and his friends.

The Ice Bar - literally everything was made of ice

Spent the rest of the evening getting extremely drunk (and in Stace's case annoying - she'd decided Rich looked like Jack Bower from 24 and kept inpersonating the cell phone ring tone from the programme). We had a great time and everyone was very worse for wear when it came to leaving. Woke up with a raging hangover, which wasn't great as we had to pack and clean the van as we had to return it that day, then made our way to the airport hotel, ready for our flight to Tahiti. Looking forward to doing nothing but eat, drink and sunbathing for a few days....