New Zealand Pt 1- Auckland

Wednesday 20 April

A group of my friends and I decided we wanted to go to New Zealand while we in Australia, since it is "right there." It just so happens this year that ANZAC day (which is Australia's memorial/ veterans/labor day all in one) was the same day as Easter Monday, which means Easter Monday was moved to Tuesday, which meant we got an extra long weekend to travel! So Wednesday night myself, and my friends Jessica and Lauren headed to NZ, while our other two friends Kirsten and Michelle we meeting us the next day. 

     We headed to the airport, got checked in and had time to eat before our flight. We settled on Maccers and made an amazing discovery... they have American style Ketchup! Not tomato sauce! You cannot imagine our excitement. Tomato sauce is much much sweeter and runnier than our ketchup, so it was quite the treat to have normal ketchup again. After this we went to our gate, and right when we got there they started boarding. We didn't even sit down, we literally walked up to the gate and handed over our tickets. The flight was normal, it took just under 3 hours to fly from Sydney to Auckland. Here we found the cheapest transportation to our hostel and were quickly on our way! 

     We arrived at the hostel, got checked in and headed up to our room which was in the sanctuary. This is a part of the hostel that is just for girls. You also get free shampoo, conditioner, a towel, bar soap, and a free glass of bubbly (champagne) from the bar next door just for staying here! It was a great deal and it now our new favorite hostel. Once we got to our room we went to bed so we could get up and explore the next day. 

Thursday 21 April

     We started our day early by heading down to the wharfs and getting brekky. It was a really nice day which was perfect because my friends were bungee jumping today! I was not participating so I was the official videographer/photographer. We were picked up from the wharf by the company and taken to their office where we all strapped on harnesses and helmets for the climb. I went up the Auckland bridge into the jump pod with them, and caught the whole thing on tape. The view was amazing from the bridge, we could see the whole skyline, and though it does go against nature to let your friends jump off a bridge, it was really cool to see! hahaha!

The crazy bungee jumpers!

Auckland skyline

     After this adventure we walked around the city and saw some parks and we were pleased that they had Wendy's! New Zealand has far more American items than Australia, they even had Hershey candy! 

     While we were walking around we saw this huge tent with lots of people outside holding small cans of Coke Zero. So we headed over to see what was going on where we were each handed a free can of Coke Zero in support of the All Blacks. This is the New Zealand Rugby team and they were having a huge campaign to support them in the upcoming world cup, which is in NZ this year! They had this a place to write an encouraging message to the team (we did),

Writing our message of encouragement! 

and you could get an autograph from an All Black's legend (we did), and they had a chance to win game. The game was you had to drink your mini Coke Zero, recycle the can, then pick a empty Coke bottle off a wall of Coke bottles. 

Wall of Coca-Cola bottles for the game.

If there was a W on the inside of the cap you win a t-shirt. You're allowed to play 3 times a day, and if you win again you get a different prize. So we went up, and wouldn't you know it we all ended up winning! Odds of 1 in 7 and all 3 of us won! 

I WON! 

     After this we went over to Vector Arena and then to the grocery store to get supplies for dinner! Finally we went back the hostel where we met up with Michelle and Kirsten and we made a yummy dinner of penne pasta with tomato sauce and a ceasar salad. That night we went over the bar next door to check out the locals, but it wasn't really our taste so we ended up leaving after our free glass of bubbly.

Friday 22 April (Good Friday)

     Today we decided to explore more of Auckland as it was our last day here and Kirsten and Michelle hadn't seen anything yet. We walked down to the wharf, but the whole city was really quiet because it was a holiday, so a lot of things were closed. 

Countdown to the Rugby World Cup! 140 days! 

We decided to go see if the museum was open but on the way it started to rain, well pour is a more appropriate term, so we were hiding under 2 umbrellas under a tree, when the owners of the hostel across the street invited us out of the rain. They were so nice, they let us watch TV while we waited out the rain. Soon we were on our way again, and after getting lost a few times we finally found the hiking area that is before the museum. 

Hiking to the museum.

    However, a few of us were getting tired of walking and thought the museum too far and that it wouldn't even be open because of the holiday so they decided to explore the city more. Lauren and I decided to continue on and to our delight found the museum was open! We went in and saw a large exhibit on the Maori people, which are the New Zealand Aboriginals. We then went through many other exhibits including a fashion one, one one WWI, one on WWII, one on the Holocaust, and finally one on volcanoes! The museum was really unique in that they were really interactive, for instance in the war exhibits parts of them were fake trenches, with tapes playing war noises. And in the volcano exhibit there was a fake house that had a volcano simulation! It was definitely worth the trip. 

In a model traditional Maori meeting house! We had to take our shoes off to go in! 

     After this Lauren and I headed back to meet the others, and then we all headed to the bus station to head to our next location, Rotorua!