Fun Fact #3: Sweets are called lollies in Australia and New Zealand
Checked out of the hostel on Friday morning. Was getting a coach up to Whangarei at 4pm. Whangarei is in the North of New Zealand and is pronounced Fa-nga-rei, but I've just been saying 'Wangaray', 'Wan-garry', 'Fan-garry' and 'Fongorray'.
Check out was at 10am, so I had a good 5 hours to kill doing nothing. Left my suitcase in the hostel luggage storage and walked to Auckland Metro Centre, which is just a short walk up the road. Because I'm cheap and don't want to pay $4 for WiFi in the hostel, I just use the free WiFi in the Metro Centre. Think I'm meant to pay for something while i'm there to use the WiFi, but I never bother. After checking my spam emails and looking at food & cat photos on Instagram, I walked down to the harbour. Sat down, wrote my Auckland blog post and left to get lunch. Decided to go to Wendy's for fast food. Never been there before, so I was curious to see what the food tasted like. I ordered the Baconator Mushroom Melt with a strawberry sundae. THE BACONATOR! I've had a lot of takeaway burgers since I left England and this was by far the best takeaway burger I have ever eaten. If you've ever seen The Simpsons episode when Homer eats the Ribwich burger, it was like that. Even the chips were amazing and the sundae was the thickest sundae I've ever tried to drink. Good job they don't have a Wendy's back in England because I would never leave.
I somehow managed to make it until 4pm and got on a coach to Whangarei. I was traveling there to stay with Aunty Limmy and her husband Adrian, who are friends of the family. Once again she is technically not my real Aunty, I just have to call her that because it's a Chinese thing.
On the coach journey up there I had a nap. I should have been looking at the lovely scenery outside, but I was tired from not getting much sleep the night before. When I did wake up, I looked out the window and saw a man wearing socks and sandals.
Adrian picked me up from the coach station and when we got back to the house it started to piss it down with rain. I just laughed.
Adrian and Aunty Limmy are really nice and are great to get on with. I love staying with family friends because you always get lots of free food. They cooked Roast Lamb for tea and it tasted lovely. It's also nice to have your own room and space to relax. You just don't get that when you stay in hostels.
On Saturday we went to Matapouri Beach. Walking around when suddenly a wild Pokemon appeared. It was actually a Pukeko bird, but I like to think of birds as types of Pokemon, because i'm weird.
Like Australia, everyone in New Zealand is really friendly. Almost everyone we walked passed on the beach said hello. If I said hello to someone I didn't know in England, they would most probably tell me to feck off.
Had another burger for lunch. Wasn't as good as the Baconator but it was still really nice. After the beach we just went back to the house. Had steak an chips, caught up on Ant and Decs Saturday Night Takeaway & then went to bed. On a side note if you haven't seen the latest episode of Saturday Night Takeaway watch it because they perform 'Let's get to Rumble' and it's amazing! "Watch us reck the mic. Watch us reck the mic. Psyche!"
This is the second time I've been to New Zealand now. The first time was 9 years ago in 2004. Couldn't remember much of it because my memory sucks. However on Sunday we went to the Waitangi Treaty Grounds and I actually remembered something. At home, we have a photo of me and my sister standing next to a statue there. When I saw the statue again 9 years later, I had to get a photo next to it. It was really surreal.
Afterwards we went to Paihia. Had the world famous lamb and kumara pie from a place called the Upper Deck. This was the best pie I've ever eaten. I rarely eat pies so that statement doesn't really mean anything. Still really good though. Got on a ferry to Russell beach. When we got there I went swimming. The sea was nice but it was a pebble beach. When I got out of the water I must of stepped on a broken shell or a bit of glass because I had a cut on my foot. I also had a little sea termite or something bite my ankle. It looked like a see through giant woodlice. The little bloodsucking bastard.
On Monday, me and Adrian went kayaking. We went to a place called Urqurts. It was the nicest place I've seen so far in New Zealand. It looked a bit like the shire in The Lord of the Rings. Everywhere you looked, looked amazing. The place we kayaked to was really nice and peaceful. Felt like my arms were going to fall off when I was paddling. Didn't realise it was so much hard work. When we finally got to the place we were paddling to, I was exhausted. After picking up a lot of pebbles to take back home with me, I put on a wetsuit and went snorkelling. Water leaked through my mask and was going up my nose. Couldn't breath properly for a bit and felt like I was going to drown... which was fun. I took a spear gun into the water with me but I couldn't catch any fish because they are surprisingly fast. Had a great time but I don't think I'll go kayaking again for a while. On the way back home I saw a car with a personalised registration plate that just said 'CATS'. Apparently you can have anything you want for your registration plate in New Zealand, as long as it available and within reason.
Since I got to Aunty Limmy and Adrian's home, I've eaten soooo much food. I didn't want to waste any food, so I ate everything that was put on my plate in the 3 days I was there (it's just impolite to waste free food). At night we went to a Tai restaurant. When we got back I could hardly move because I ate so much. Watched TV for the rest of the night and went to sleep.
Tuesday morning I got a coach back to Auckland. Going to miss staying with Aunty Limmy and Adrian. No more free food or clean clothes until I get back to England now.
Whangarei or 'Whunge' as my sister spelt it on Facebook, is a lovely place. In fact everywhere in the north of New Zealand is lovely. It's like being in the countryside, with the beach and sea only a 2 minute walk away. Perfect place to have a holiday home.
I checked back into the same hostel and was put into room 1103, the room next to the one I was in before. Met my new roommates. There was an American girl, a Dutch bloke and a German girl. When I met the German girl at night she was drunk. She said she was only here because she met someone in a hostel in Melbourne, who was now in Auckland (more on this later).
Walked around for a bit and saw a women with a sign saying "Free Hugs". I hugged her just to get a photo. I ended up in a record shop called Real Groovy, which I loved. They pretty much sold everything a like there. Walked outside and saw a man looking for something in a pile of rubbish and a man wearing a dress. Kept on walking and wondered into Myers Park. Was really peaceful there apart from the couple to left of me that couldn't keep their hands off each other.
Later, after finding some graffiti, I stopped to take photos. When I turned around to take more photos, I accidentally kicked a cat in the face. Felt really bad about it afterwards.
So after kicking a cat in the face, I went to Sal's Authentic New York Pizza and ordered an 18" Pepperoni pizza. Cost me $28 but was worth it.
Later...
German roommate came back at 6am with a bloke. I'm assuming it was the same person she met in Melbourne but I'm not sure because I missed the last episode of 'The Hostel' soap story. Anyway, when they got back they discreetly started having sex. At least they were trying to be quite about it, but seriously?! There were 3 other people in the same room ffs ಠ_ಠ
The next day I went to the Auckland Museum. Took lots of photos and was really interesting.
Then more stuff happened, like travelling back in time, but that's another story.
To be continued...
(No cats were (seriously) harmed in the making of this blog post)
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