Auckland

Views from Mount Eden
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Well then, we ended up having to rush to Auckland to get my camera fixed which was a bit irritating because we wanted to stay longer to go zorbing and I wanted to go to the sheep show at the agradome (yes I was really looking forward to it!). Alena and Selina ended up coming with us in our car, it saved them hitchhiking all the way and was ok as we were already headed there. As soon as we got to Auckland it was mayhem, there were so many cars and about four lanes so was really nervewracking given that in the rest of New Zealand there is hardly traffic at all so that came as a bit of a shock. Also the fact that we had to drive through the city to find the backpackers but ended up staying on the edge of the city in Parnell to save us having to worry about parking. So the first thing we did was go to see about getting our camera fixed and they were brilliant at Canon and said they could get it done in a couple of days for us, we said we needed it done ASAP and as we had only had it for 3 weeks they were good about it. Well anyway we went back to our hostel in Parnell found a parking space (there were yellow lines along some parts of the road so we made sure to find a proper parking space and parked in it) and went in to check in. When we came out to collect our bags about 5 mins after parking there was a traffic warden writing us a parking ticket for parking in the wrong direction (of traffic) on a 2 way street! We couldn´t believe it, after such a terrible day of having to leave Rotorua in such a rush and the stress of driving through Auckland, this is something we could have done without. This is defintely the most pointless ticket you can ever give someone, especially because the road was on a steep hill and Jamie didn´t want to reverse up the hill. Well I suppose it could have been worse!

View of Volcano in background
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The hostel we are staying in is quite nice, Lantana Lodge, really homely and not so many people which is what I really like. On the following day we visited the museum and decided to watch the Maori cultural performance because this was something we would have done in Rotorua so didn´t want to miss out. I thought it was brilliant, they have such amazing voices and are so talented I really enjoyed it. They did the huka too which was really cool to see it done. We had silly photos done afterwards which you will prob laugh at! Afterwards we decided to visit the Victoria museum and i bought some paua (special NZ stone, very pretty) to make myself a nice photo album when I get home.

Mount Eden, parking fines and Maoris performing the Huka war dance! And driving through Auckland!!

Bev with view
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In the morning we went to pick my camera up and it was working well so that was all good. We then decided to visit Mount Eden. We drove to the summit, the views were amazing and also the massive crater you could see was impressive. On the way back we dropped the car off, far too stressful to be driving around Auckland, plus we went to the airport in the morning so easier to get it out of the way now. We decided to go in the car wash before we took it back but when we got there I don´t think anyone else bothered, oh well. I would rather that than be charged a cleaning fee! It was quite a relief to give the car back, especially navigating which was a lot more stressful than I thought. I was tempted to burn the road maps but that probably would have been taking it too far...

A LONG way back home!
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Well that was it for New Zealand, we will definately come back and if we visit Auckland again we will make sure we don´t have to drive through the city (only if its on the way OUT!)