Moved to my new hostel Monday morning, and then went to catch the ferry to Half Moon Bay to meet Peter and Pam Creamer who I think is my third cousin (he was gran's cousin). The crossing took about half an hour, but it was so rough as the weather was crap - cold, grey and raining. I was sat inside and the spray was constantly hitting the windows. Peter met me from the ferry and took me back to his house in Howick where I met Pam. She cooked a roast lamb dinne...

Decided to go on a walk called the coast to coast walkway with Debbie. It's basically a walk across the city. We went via Parnell to have a look a the hostel I would be moving to - called Garden City Lodge, which seemed really nice. But we then had huge problems trying to get a bus to the start of the walk, and as we discovered after we had walked to the train station - the train didn't run on a sunday. We ended up walking all the way to One Tree Hill, which...

Decided against staying in Auckland as I didn't like it too much. So cancelled the job interview and stopped flat hunting. On Saturday afternoon/evening I went to the Sky Tower in Auckland with Debbie. The Sky Tower is right in the centre of Auckland and is 328m high which is tghe tallest structure in the southern hemisphere. We got a lift up to the observation centre (it had a glass bottom panel which was really cool) which gives you an amazing view of the ci...

had a interview with an employment agency today at 9am. I had to get up at 7.30 which sucked! Was there for three hours. Firstly I had to do three test - a bank reconciliation, a debtor rec and a creditor rec. I'm not use to doing these things on paper - I always used a computer. Got 100% in the bank rec, but didn't do as well in the other two. Also had to do data input test (I did excellently!!) and watch a stupid health and safety video and then answer q...

Arrived in Auckland Monday 27th September around 11.30am. It took about an hour to clear customs and then I had to declare my walking boots and snacks!. Instead of going directly to the Hostel we stopped at Mount Eden; an extinct volcano in the middle of Auckland (Auckland is apparently built on about 50 odd of them). It provided great views of Auckland which is a massive city. Got a bit homesick when the plaque there showed that the furthest place was London...