Monday, December 3, 2007

Here and traveling

Internet access here is not like Canada/US – the hotel was supposed to have it at a price but it failed to work and nobody knew why. So the blog will not get updated as often as I would have liked.

Friday 30th November
Arrived safely in NZ at dawn (~ 6 am - see pic.) after many, many hours of travel which actually weren’t so bad. Finally checked into the hotel at 1 pm and basically crashed for a while to catch up on sleep. Toured Auckland for two days while adjusting for jet lag. – by the way this is not a quiet city at night on the weekend – it’s some city, very Asian in cuisine (very good), and seems like a cross between New York and Vancouver. For those less enamoured by the sailing life I apologize for the number of boat oriented pics but Auckland does have the most boats per capita of anywhere.

Sunday 2nd December
We picked up the campervan on Sunday morning (for those in the UK/North America) we are one day ahead of you – mind-bending and had a delicious lunch with my cousin and his wife who lives just North of Auckland. Haven’t seen him since I was 8 years old. His brother and wife (who live in the UK) were also there visiting and we caught up on news from them.

That afternoon we stocked up on food and parked near a river (living in a van down by the river for those who remember Chris Farley on Saturday Night Live) in a place called Warkworth. Next day we were off to ‘Sheepworld’ to watch sheepdogs in action and sheep-shearing.

Monday 3rd December
Last night we parked next to a beach in the most beautiful place – wish we owned real estate there. We woke up to the sound of the Pacific surf (I swam in it – not warm) and the first really nice weather we’ve seen so far. Today we are moving on again and just stopped in Paihia to get more stuff and access the Internet. We are heading to the Northern tip of the North Island of New Zealand.