Muriwai Beach horse ride! 15/03

Muriwai regional park.



Katie in Albert park.



The pain.

Two red heads.

Serious pain.

Muriwai.

The Colony.

The truck we are borrowing!

07/03 Whenuapai with the Kiwi cowboys

We left our hostel in the city centre early Friday morning. Over the next three weeks we will be staying with katie's friend Julie who operates a fantastic horse riding school called Kiwi cowboys. Julie owns a farm in a suburb called Whenuapai in the Western Waitakere area of Auckland city. Whenuapai is home to the Royal New Zealand Air force base but Despite this Julie's farm is very calm and quiet. The farm holds ten horses a barn and quite a few padocks it is very peaceful and has a bit of a funny ranch/tropical feel to it. Julie is an amazing person to be around, she has made us feel very welcome and is such a nice person to be around. Already I have absolute trust in her. When I arrived I had done little more than look at horses in fields, Within two days I have overcome a mild intimidation and instinctive fear of horses, I have been bullied to feed, groom, and sit on a horse which is a big deal! Katie already with previous expirience seemed to quite happy with all these chores and is doing a fair bit better than me.

Me in Auckland harbour.

06/03 Auckland

After what felt like an eternity we left Auckland international airport our finnal destination. We got the bus to our hostel just off Queens street in the city centre. Our hostel Nomads was the cheapest accommodation we could find at $22 a night which works out as 11 pounds a night in real money. The hostel was a five miunte walk from the harbour and really wasn't that bad. We slept in a 12 dorm room and had access to a kitchen, internet cafe and a nice bar. I will admit it, sleeping in a room with strangers is a bit strange, especially when one of your room mates is a fat 6'7" brute sporting huge nipple rings and tattoos. Apart from our murderous room mate who came and went at very perculiar hours of the morning everyone else seemed to be very normal and pleasant. The The first night we spent around five pounds each on dinner it was the best five pounds I have ever spent! I got a huge burger called the hangover cure with free chips!

The next day we took a wonder around Albert park which lies on one of many volcanic rocks in the Auckland area. We eat lunch in the park and had great day looking around the city centre, we also visited the Sky tower to find that our budget did not facilitate a visit to the sky deck.

Friday we were on a mission to find gum boots, what you and I would know as wellington boots. We needed to get the boots as the next day we were due to go horse riding. We searched high and low in the city centre for the boots and we resorted to walking five kilometers to a Westfield out of town. We asked for directions on a couple of occasions shortly followed by "Your walking all the way there?" (Aparently kiwi's don't walk far.) We did get there in the end though. That night we used more food coupons and visited the bar next door to the hostel. We spent around fourteen dollars and got a great pizza and glass of wine each. That pretty much finnished us off for the day and we were in bed by seven. Later that night one of our room mates returned from her night out with her drunk friends and woke the whole room up. This was the second time this happened and everyone was completely fed up with her. As we left the previous day we noticed she really wasn't wearing a lot in her hungover state. This night was no exception. While up for an early morning toilet visit this was what we found!

Slutty naked sleeping girl... HUMILIATION!!!

06/03 Auckland City centre

This is the first time I have been able to get on a computer since we have got here. We arrived In Auckland after 36 hours of solid travelling stopping off at Changi international airport in Singapore and Sydney international. On the first leg of the flight we decided to drink lots of cheap wine and eat lots of short bread while watching movies (nothing that interesting). Our first change at Singapore was pretty sweet, we flew over the bay at low tide as the sun was setting. I could see hundreds of ships waiting to get in to the harbour and lots of land poking out of the orange water it looked amazing. Once we had landed I realised that I was quite hungover, dehydrated and sleep deprived. We visted the smoking section of terminal 1, not usualy where you want to go after a 14 hour fight but, as Changi international airport is voted the as the best in the world it has a really nice smoking area. If every smoking area was like the one in Changi airport everyone would smoke. It has a beautiful cactus garden with plenty of information on all the plants and a coctail bar with soft chairs. Another 15 hours later we arrived in Sydney by this time I didn't know where I was or what I was I had only been sleeping for short periods on each flight. We then boarded our flight to Auckland which was another 3 hours. 

This is what I looked like at the end. I am pretty sure I had stuff growing out of my face.

Interesting stuff to come soon...

The Itinerary

	Monday, February 28, 2011		Qantas Airways QF320 (Operated By BRITISH AIRWAYS)on a Boeing 777	Confirmed
	2145	Depart	Heathrow, London United Kingdom	Economy
			Terminal 3	1 Stop
	Wednesday, March 02, 2011
	0650	Arrive	Sydney Kingsford Smith Arpt, Sydney NS - Australia	Journey Time: 22:05
			Terminal 1 (touches down in Singapore for 1hr 35 mins)

---

	Wednesday, March 02, 2011		Qantas Airways QF55 (Operated By JETCONNECT FOR QANTAS) on a Boeing 737-800 (winglets)	Confirmed
	0915	Depart	Sydney Kingsford Smith Arpt, Sydney NS - Australia	Economy
			Terminal 1	Non Stop
	Wednesday, March 02, 2011
	1420	Arrive	Auckland Arpt, Auckland New Zealand	Journey Time: 3:05
			Terminal I

---

	Wednesday, March 23, 2011		Qantas Airways QF4955 (Operated By JETSTAR AIRWAYS) on a Airbus Industrie A320-100/200	Confirmed
	1230	Depart	Auckland Arpt, Auckland New Zealand	Economy
			Terminal D	Non Stop
	Wednesday, March 23, 2011
	1350	Arrive	Christchurch Arpt, Christchurch New Zealand	Journey Time: 1:20
			Terminal M

---

	Wednesday, April 27, 2011		Qantas Airways QF46 (Operated By JETCONNECT FOR QANTAS) on a Boeing 737-800 (winglets)	Confirmed
	1325	Depart	Christchurch Arpt, Christchurch New Zealand	Economy
			Terminal M	Non Stop
	Wednesday, April 27, 2011
	1450	Arrive	Sydney Kingsford Smith Arpt, Sydney NS - Australia	Journey Time: 3:25
			Terminal 1

---

	Saturday, May 07, 2011		Qantas Airways QF427 on a Boeing 737-800 (winglets)	Confirmed
	1100	Depart	Sydney Kingsford Smith Arpt, Sydney NS - Australia	Economy
			Terminal 3	Non Stop
	Saturday, May 07, 2011
	1235	Arrive	Tullamarine Arpt, Melbourne VI - Australia	Journey Time: 1:35
			Terminal 1

---

	Saturday, May 21, 2011		Qantas Airways QF9 on a Airbus A380	Confirmed
	1530	Depart	Tullamarine Arpt, Melbourne VI - Australia	Economy
			Terminal 2	Non Stop
	Saturday, May 21, 2011
	2120	Arrive	Changi Intl Arpt, Singapore Singapore	Journey Time: 7:50
			Terminal 1

---

Travel by Own Arrangements

---

	Monday, August 22, 2011		Qantas Airways QF301 (Operated By BRITISH AIRWAYS)on a Boeing 747-400	Confirmed
	0020	Depart	Suvarnabhumi Intl Arpt, Bangkok Thailand	Economy
			Terminal	Non Stop
	Monday, August 22, 2011
	0635	Arrive	Heathrow, London United Kingdom	Journey Time: 12:15
			Terminal 3