A Fiery Pit Stop

A few days in the city to recover from my New Zealand adventure and prepare for the next phase of my travels. Time to unpack the backpack, (absolute bliss!), send a few things home to England to lighten the load, shopping, internet, that kind of thing. Luckily I also remembered, just in the nick of time, that I needed to get my yellow fever jab ready for South America. After a bit of panic when a couple of clinics were completely booked, I succeeded in getting not only yellow fever but a couple of extra random ones just for good measure! Feeling a bit sore, I cheered up when I saw a special advertised in the window of a hairdressers for a ‘hair spa’. Boy did I need this especially after Rotorua, didn’t even want to touch my hair it was a horrible mess. Didn’t enjoy the spa so much feeling dodgy having just come out from the travel clinic with two armloads but my hair felt wonderful, silky, fabulous afterwards so back on track, all trace of New Zealand adventure washed, steamed and conditioned away!
Auckland was the perfect place for a pit stop, a very modern and pleasant city. OK, maybe not so much in the way of architectural interest but I still felt quite happy here, taking walks around the harbour and going up the Sky tower to catch amazing views and watch people jump off the top, typical New Zealand style, where there is a height there is a bungy jump! Auckland is truly in a beautiful setting, surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, bridges and volcanoes.

Meeting some local fruit cakes

Auckland CBD

From the sky tower

From the sky tower

Auckland sky tower

I complained about my room in the hostel and got upgraded to one with this view!

I complained about my room in the hostel and got upgraded to one with this view!

Auckland was pretty uneventful. Oh, apart from the evening that literally went up in a blaze! I had met Alberto in a pub and we were enjoying a quiet drink when I thought I could smell smoke. A few minutes later a lady came past us calmly announcing ‘there is a fire’ where? Where? We went outside to be nosy and take a look but realised that IT WAS THE PUB WE WERE IN THAT WAS ACTUALLY ON FIRE!!! Smoke billowing out from one of the rooms above, firemen everywhere getting their big ladders in on the action and OMG this was funny! No warning, no alarm, nothing. So this was an unforgettable goodbye to New Zealand. This needed to happen quickly as all of these activities had seriously eaten into mu budget. I just couldn’t help myself, couldn’t resist kayaking, hiking, caving, jumping out of a plane. What an adventure though, a beautiful country, it is true when people say it is like the whole world in miniature, and what welcoming people.
Time to start crossing the Pacific, onwards and towards the Americas, with a greatly anticipated stopover in some South Pacific paradise islands Ohhhhhh yeah bring it on!!

The pub is on fire yikes!

Is it really nearly Christmas?

Auckland harbour

Car driving down the sky tower?

The pub is on fire yikes!

Auckland CBD

Bungy jumping off the sky tower

From the Sky Tower