So as you know, we're near the end of our journey in NZ, although we still have near 3 weeks left! Not really sure on what options we have at the moment if we wanna change flights or hang around near a beach. We're sat in a campsite just outside of Auckland, here's how we got here!

February 16:

We left our campsite at around 8am to get to Hot Water Beach. It's just a beach really but has a cool side interest. For 2 hours either side of low tide, you can dig a hole on the beach & hot water will flow up through from underground, creating a personal spa pool! Unfortunately low tide was at 7pm, so it would mean hanging around for quite a while. We had a coffee & headed west towards Auckland.
We stopped for an hour or so at Miranda hot pools. A man-made attraction that captures the natural hot water from various springs in the vacinity. They have the biggest thermal pool in the southern hemisphere, a giant jacuzzi/spa & several private spa areas. They can boast some of the biggest cockroach's in the World but they don't advertise that! It was nice to relax & break up the drive anyhow.
Back on the road, 100km from Auckland & the drive was surprisingly good for such a big City. It took us about an hour, so averaging 100km/h. Imagine doing that into London or Bristol.....think there would be a few accidents along the way.
Auckland, from first impression at least, seems like a pretty cool place. Very multi-cultural, lots of students, swanky bars, great architecture & a very tempting proposition - a leap of faith from New Zealands & one of the World's tallest buildings - the Auckland Sky Tower. You do get to wear a harness but it's still pretty scary even thinking about it. This time tomorrow, I/we may have tried it out. See what it involves first eh!?
After a cruise around the City, we found a busy campground, near Avondale. It's cheap & the facilities are good so we are here for 2 nights at least. Venturing into town on public transport tomorrow to see some sights & see about changing our flights! Who knows, we may be in another country next time you hear from us. Fingers crossed anyway.

February 17:

So we caught the bus into town this morning, easier than we thought it would be. A dayrider ticket cost $7 & it gave us unlimited use of all public transport for the day.
First stop was the info centre to get our bearings, then the trip to Qantas House to let rip about the shocking service before asking if we can adjust our Fiji flights - for free! Gotta love the cheek.
I think we got lucky. The woman we spoke to felt very sorry for us & was probably worried about my blood pressure during the rant. She told us it would be $192 each to change the flights, then handed over our new itineraries & told us not to worry about the fee, we have been through enough as it is!! I wanted to kiss her but Carly probably would have said something! So the short story is, we fly to Fiji in 5 days time! Woohoo!!!!!!
So with the biggest grins on our faces, we walked out onto the main street & did some window shopping, followed by actual shopping in Burger King.
We decided to check out the sky tower, the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere. I've become lazy when it comes to collecting the facts so I can't tell you how high it is. Hold that thought, Carly just informed me it's 328m tall! The observation deck is 220m up. The views are spectacular & Auckland is very pretty indeed. You can sense how happy I am about the Qantas thing right?!
A couple of people did the sky jump while we were on the observation deck. It's basically a jump from a platform just above where we were, & it lowers you to the ground at 80km/h. If it was a freefall I would have been tempted but after the last few weeks, anything less than 150km/h is slow!
We caught another bus (the dayrider is useful), this time to the Museum. It was a spare of the moment thing, as they have 'Sue' on show. She's the biggest & most complete skeleton of a T-Rex ever discovered.
We got there & stepped inside, out of the scorching sun. It was a beautiful building overlooking the city & the exhibits were superb. Such a well presented museum.
We experienced the sensation of a volcano erupting, saw 'Sue', she's a beast & tons of other interesting stuff. You could spend a day there but we were dead on our feet!
We caught the bus back to Avondale, our campsite & chilled out with a few beers & a lot of mozzies! Wicked Campers refused to refund any of our money on the van because we're returning it early. I am going to draft an email in the hope that they see sense & treat us as valued customers! Will let you know how that goes!!!

Til next time, that's all folks. xx