Out of bed at 5am to head to the airport for our flight. Bumped into Jess there as she was flying out too. She seemed pretty glad to be leaving, she had done some island hopping and the accomodation on some of them sounded pretty rough. She said with no air con and a pathetic plug in fan the whole place was damp with sweat and sea water. Hmmm. Maybe lucky we never bothered! Our day trip was a right treat. Chilled and had some breakfast while awaiting our flight. After three hours plane sailing (eh?), swatching Tin Tin the movie and enjoying some complimentary nuts, we touched down safely in Auckland. Woop. Next stage of the journey. While we were waiting to get off actually we were chatting to some people around us. Nice friendly folks from California, we had just told them we were from Scotland and from the background in a pure scottish accent- "Aw, ye dinnie wanna go back there". Hah! Guy standing waiting to get off is from Airdrie. It's such a small world. He was ginger. Respect.

Pass all the necessary ports and get out to airport information to enquire about buses into the city. Assisted by a little Glasweigan woman with an odd Glasgow/Kiwi accent combo. An interesting number. From this point forward we are astounded at how friendly everyone is and how easy it is to get from place to place. The sun is shining and its a toasty comfortable temperature for two Scottish ladies, Basically, we were loving life. A bus ran right to our hostel so caught that (with a hooker) and the helpful bus driver told us where to get off. Right at the door. Hostel dorm is a bit tight and stuffy but entirely manageable. Dumped our stuff then headed out for a wee explore. Walked down to the harbour and booked a tour of Devonport for the following day. A little town over the other side of the harbour that can be reached by ferry in 10mins. Continued saunteering and came across a Kiwi Experience office purely by chance. Went in to see what the chat was. Great wee Kiwi lad in there eager to sort us out. Books us on the bus to head up North in a few days. Gather lots of info from him including the fact we can't actually use our passes to travel back up...bit of a b*****. Will have to be a flight from Christchurch, our finish point, back to Auckland. Hopefully shan't be too pricey. Leave there happy nonetheless. So great to have bumped into that place. Friendly Kiwi Experience guy pointed us in the direction of the Domain museum up Parnell Road. We start up the road then realise how hungry we are. Spot a place called Windsor Castle that looks decent and cheapish. Key criteria. Explain to the lovely bartender about Fiji Gold to see if he had any idea about it or knew of anything similar, he was clueless so decided to give us some samples. Pretty large, plentiful samples. Ideal. By the time we left there and reached the museum, it was shut. Well carried away with the beer. Bit of a fail. It was in a beautiful park area though so we just sat there for a while and watched tuns of runners firing about. Grasshopers piping up that were deafeningly loud. Made our way back to Queen Street, past the uni and Albert park, as well as a building covered in Ivy. Get back to hostel and it's 3 free drinks for girls in the globe bar downstairs. Obviously have to go. Crap bar though, hardly anyone around so took advantage of the drinks then moved on out. Went a wander round the city, seen a massage parlour..went in. Not really. Reached China town area then about turned and just went back to the hostel. Got some chat with the roommates before TRYING to sleep. LOUD LOUD snorer in the room, I was losing the heed in the night. Pffft. Rubbish amount of shut eye.

Kate x