New Zealand!

After two years in Aus I've now moved on to another country at last. It doesn't really feel like it though, just feels like I've moved on to another part of Aus. Apart from the fact that they have a lot less stupid round football pitches and Burger King is actually called Burger King here. I'm sure I'll notice more differences when I start moving around cos the scenery here is supposed to be beautiful.

So far I've had four days in Auckland and managed to walk around a fair bit of it. It feels like I've walked miles in the last two days! I followed the Lonely Planet's walking tour, but decided to do it backwards cos I was nearer the end than the start. In doing this I learnt three things: 1) Auckland is hilly, very hilly! 2) following directions backwards isn't as easy as one would think and 3) There's a reason they do those walking tours the way they do them, so that you don't end up walking UP all the hills and 127 steps in one go!

This morning I went to the Auckland Museum which was pretty cool. There was lots of stuff on Maori culture, loads of carvings and a really interesting exhibit on volcanoes. Auckland is built on top of like 50 volcanoes and even though the last one erupted 600 years ago and they are all dormant, there is still a chance another one could pop up any time. They reckon it won't be for 100s or 1000s of years though. In the museum there was a really cool thing where you sit in a house and see what it'd be like if one erupted now. you're watching the news about it and then the house starts shaking then they 'go live' to the volcano erupting out of the sea. Pretty scary that it could actually happen.

The museum is in the domain, a big park with some pretty flower gardens in it. From there I walked back to the city and then this afternoon I took a ferry across the harbour to Devonport. While there I walked around the edge of North Head (an old volcano) which was used by the Navy so there are tunnels and guns all around it. from the top there was a really good view of the city and the islands in the bay, including Rangitoto which i hope to visit when i get back here next month.

I start my Magic bus trip tomorrow - first stop Rotorua!