New Zealand

Auckland:

Plane journey from Vietnam was long. 3hrs to Kuala Lumper, 5hrs later, we got our connecting flight 9hrs to Auckland. We opted for the cheaper option of the bus to get us into town which was 8 pounds each rather than the taxi which was 25 pounds each. We stopped off not too far from our hotel, City Oaks, but was still a little walk away. Our hotel room was on the top floor so over looked part of the city and had a kitchen and facilities....not that we used it. But it did have a washing maching which we did use as made a change from 3months of hand washing!

We took a little walk into the city and both instantly felt very disappointed with what Auckland had to offer. A big city with not much in it when you look closely - loads of McDonalds, KFC, Burger King and other fast food chains, so we walked for 3hrs before we found the only Nandos in the city as we didn't want fast food! We came to the conclusion that the men here must never take their wives out for dinner.....not anywhere nice anyway!

We stopped at the sky tower and watched some people walk along and sky jump from the top. At 120 pounds each to do both, we decided to watch was good enough for us and it didn't look all that good.

Back to the hotel for the night, we put the heating on to 30' and Mrs F even had to dust of her base layers to wear to bed!

Kuala Lumper airport.....

               
                       Sky Tower....

AUCKLAND 

DAY 2:

Due to crossing over several time zones, Mrs F was seriously jet lagged and so couldn't sleep - which worked out ok because she put the tele on and watched the Queens Diamond Jubilee......at 2am!

Feeling patriotic (and home sick) Mrs F finally managed to get some sleep.

We decided that since New Zealand is outrageously expensive, we would do things that either cost very little or were free to do, so we got the bus costing 1pound 25p each to Mount Eden, the highest point in Auckland. We walked up quite a steep hill to the top which over looked and gave us some amazing views of the city. It also had a dial which showed the direction of all the major cities of the world and their distance from Auckland.

The View from our room....

At the bottom of Mount Eden

Mrs F not entering the volcanic crater

                 
  ......Long way from home :-(

After Mount Eden we took another walk into the city. We found it really strange that all the locals wait for the green man at all the traffic lights, even if there are no cars coming. Sometimes you can wait 3-4mins to cross when there is nothing coming, but they do not budge until the green man comes on!

Coming from London where you cross at free will, green man or not and from Asia where you just have to go for it, this was something we couldn't get our heads around. We saw a policeman and asked him if jaywalking laws applied in New Zealand as we were getting funny looks from locals when we crossed on a red man. Apparently its not illegal, just frowned upon.