Greetings from New Zealand, hooray. Please forgive any spelling or grammar mistakes in this blog entry for I am very hungover.

After our over long adventures in the other parts of Australia we were left with only 2 nights in Brisbane, and in fact, that was enough. We arrived after a short bus ride from Surfer's Paradise and killed some time until we could check into our hostel. The hostel was huge, it had 20-30 rooms on each of its 5 floors. The building was very old and I don't think they have ever updated the lift. It was very dodgy and rickety with manual doors. Much fun was had playing with it. The hostel smelt of stale beer and was full of drunk Irishmen. So we decided to go down to the bar as they had many deals on beers and $7 steaks. At one point they were selling $1 dollar pots, which is less than a pound a pint. We ended up dancing on the tables and talking to some wierdos. The next day we tried to get a bit of culture and so we went to the post office and the park. In the evening we were joined by our friends from Surfers Paradise and ended up playing drinking games...again, drinking goon...again, and dancing on the tables...again. It was a very good night. However the next morning we had our flight to New Zealand at 9.50 AM. This meant getting up at about 6 to get the train to the airport. This was very difficult. We made the flight with very hazy heads and arrived in Auckland.

We were greeted at the airport by Sophie, hooray, and got a bus to our pre-booked hostel. Having recovered from our hang-overs Jamie and I set out to try our first New Zealand beer. We came across a bar called Kenny's and were invited to join in their quiz. We didn't do very well...we came dead last. Everyone was very friendly, we got some free beers and had a very nice time. The next day we went to explore Auckland and went up the Sky Tower..the view from which you can see in the photo. It is very tall. After that, we went to some bars. We had a McDonalds and were very happy to see the MEGA mac and the triple cheeseburger on the menu. The next day Darius and Sophie had booked to go on a Whale Watching tour but sadly it was cancelled. So we all went to the maritime museum and went on a chilly cruise around the harbour. We got to help put the sail up. We saw a rainbow. We checked into a different hostel called Base, which has chains around New Zealand and Australia. The bar had $4 pints all night and so we got very drunk. Stumbling across the bar I saw someone I recognized and it turned out to be 2 guys we shared a room with in Byron Bay...its a small world after all. We went to an ice bar, made of ice. We were told to wear these coats and gloves, but one of the guys got thrown out for taking all his clothes off. Today, Darius and Sophie went on their Whaling trip which they had rebooked. Jamie and I slept in a park until it rained. Jamie needed an emergency problem toilet, so we went to an art gallery. It was rubbish, however 1 more culture tick.

We have a flight to Christchurch tonight.

bye

jdjs