Auckland!!!

So at the end of our hospital stint, we headed to Auckland for a week with a trip to the bay of islands in the middle.

Day 1 it poured down all day but that didn't stop us. We trekked and trekked round and took in the sights and sounds including the main shopping st (always an essential to suss out), the hospital, the domain which is a giant park home to the Wintergardens and the Auckland museum, Newmarket with yet more shops, Parnell (posh little yummy mummy suburb with cafes and delis) and the harbour front!The museum had an interesting bit about Maori culture and the history of the pacific islanders coming to NZ, but we skipped the WWII bit. We felt we knew enough about that from school!

We also went to see the new Harry Potter in IMAX 3D as a little treat :D I know that might seem a bit boring but sometimes you just need to do something normal!

When we got back from Bay of Islands, we met some really cool people from England and chilled with them. We entered the bar pool competition and I can safely say I am hopeless at pool!

Sunday night I also ended up in A&E. I woke up at 0245 with something in my eye and just couldn't get it out. I tried getting the receptionist to put drops in and tess had a look but after an hour I couldnt close my eye properly and it was really red so I went to get it looked at. They hooked up a saline drip, I stuck my head over the sink and Tess showered my eye. It eventually came out whatever it was and then I stuck around whilst the doc checked out my eye properly. He said there was no obvious damage. We got back in about 0500 and when I woke up again at 0700 the redness had pretty much gone and it's all good now!

Monday I just mooched about the town and took it easy. I went for a walk around the university and the cenetaph and also round one of the city parks. This day was meant to be a re-fuel day to top up my energy stores but by the time I'd trekked around the town for 5hrs in thesunshine, I was pooped!

Our last day started with a haircut at the college - £12.50! Bargain and much needed! We then caught a bus out to One Tree Hill.The site the famous U2 song is based on. One odd thing though - there's no tree! We thought this was going to be more of a walk in the park but it turned into a long walk in the park and a climb up a hill 182m high. All in a maxi dress and Toms shoes. (Toms are a brand of shoes that are kinda canvas shoes, I didn't steal some chap's shoes!!) Toms shoes are not designed for off road, so they got a bit muddy and the walk was a bit slippy but we made it! Bargain of the day were Havianas flipflops - £9 instead of £25 and I traded in 2 books I picked up free somewhere for East Coast Aus Lonely Planet book for £2.50!! Roz joined us for dinner in the revolving sky tower restaurant with panoramic views of Auckland from 142m in the air! Really quite something. I had a delicious 3 course dinner for £33 and we shared a bottle of vino! A great end to Auckland! I also went out afterwards and sampled some of the night life - well it would be rude not too!

I'm now in Vanuatu and upon arrival here I'd had `12hrs sleep in 3 days and I was SHATTERED. We popped to the hospital this morning and our supervisor told us we looked shattered and we should take the first week off to go and sit on the beach and rest. So that's exactly what I've done today!!

xxx