Kia ora from New Zealand!

Well the flight wasn't as horrendous as expected. We watched a couple of films then got our heads down and before we knew it 14 hours had passed and we were landing at 4am Auckland time. We got an eyewateringly expensive taxi to our hostel and then went to sleep in the tv room! When we resurfaced we wandered out onto the streets. Outside our hostel we were propositioned by a lady from TV1 news. They were doing a piece on backpackers and needed some interviews. Charles stepped up to the plate.. So there we were, only been in the country 4 hours and national tv stars already! Allthough they may not have used his very tired ramblings about "um uh we're kinda here coz it's on our way to Asia!" we continued into the centre to gaze in wonderment at all things English. "Wow foot locker" was an actual quote from Mr Witcombe- we're easily impressed these days! To be fair it is very weird after so long in south America. I still keep saying hola and gracias to everyone and it's getting a bit annoying! The people are sooo friendly though, everyone stops to chat and is interested in where you're from and what you're doing. That may have been the case for the last 3 months however if we could speak the same language!

After a lunch when I accidently tipped the waiter more than my meal had cost we walked across the park to the Auckland museum. It was amazing, they had a beautiful exhibition on Polynesian and Maori culture and artefacts. We are now really interested in it all after going to Easter Island and really regretting not seeing some more of it like Fiji, Samoa and the Cook islands. It also drove home the damage done here by us good old Brits. In 1840 Queen Victoria got the Maori chiefs to sign the Waitangi treaty to enable the British to colonize the
islands. The wording in English and Maori were different so where the British were signing for sovereignty and possession over all the land the Maori chiefs were signing just for occupation. By 1860 the Maoris were outnumbered in their own country and much of their culture and tradition has been destroyed. To try and breach the piece they set up a Waitangi commission to hear pleas against the crown but when you see a picture of of them it's all white faces. The museum was huge and we were there for 3 hours only seeing half of it.

There was another brilliant section on volcanoes. One of the exhibits was about a British Airways flight in June 1982 which unwittingly flew into the ash cloud from the eruption of Mt Galungungg. Smoke began coming through the air conditioning vents and one by one all the engines stopped. The captain made a PA announcement that is like something from a far side card- "Good evening ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get them going again. I trust you are not in too much distress." He then managed to restart 2 of the
engines and landed the plane by sitting on his armrest and peering out of a 5cm strip of the windscreen that was not damaged, using altitude readings from the first officer! Amazing stuff huh?

Anyway we got chucked out when the museum closed at 5pm and walked
back to our hostel. Take away and sleep was the order of the long old
day, This morning was for doing all the things we'd been waiting to speak English to do. Haircutting and the osteopath- exciting stuff. In the afternoon we got on the ferry to Waihiki island which is 40minutes away and stunningly beautiful. We walked into the small village and wandered in and out the shops. Charles got some new swimming shorts after mysteriously losing his somewhere and we also topped up on some books. After spending some time on the lovely beach we walked back up and got some very very exciting FISH AND CHIPS!!! we'd been craving them since we left and they didn't dissappoint even though they were lacking the all important vinegar- why has no other nation realised that it is an absolute necessity?

We were very sad to get back on the ferry to the mainland and wished we had an extra couple of days to stay over. What was supposed to be a 35 minute trip turned into an hour after another comical announcement "we'd like to report there has been a slight engine failure so our trip will be taking double the time." Surely there is or there isn't one?!Tomorrow we start our stray bus tour which takes us all the way round both islands down to Christchurch which we leave from in a months time. We are kind of regretting booking it and not getting our own campervan but hopefully it'll be a good way to see loads of things and
there won't be too many gap year idiots!