The Road back to Auckland

After the extreme workout that was the Milford Track, we decided to unwind in Te Anau that evening by having a currry, some beer and visiting the local (extremley comfy) cinema to watch our film of the trip (by unanimous decision), Blood Diamond, for the second time, it was as good if not better than the first.

The next day consisted primarily of driving to Dunedin, by the time we got there, me n pete decided to go and see Mr Bean's Holiday while Tom had an internet sesh. We decide the next day we would go to the cinema again to see 300, the thought had occured we were not being very cultural, so we counteracted that by visiting the Museum there, despite being a modern and pretty impressive museum, i was still bored out my wits for the majority of the circuit. Previous to that we decided we would get in touch with our childhood and visit the cadbury factory which was NZ's largest cadbury factory, during the tour we saw how chocolate was made, ate chocolate fish, ate some more chocolate then decided to buy more from the factory shop. The tour itself was pretty good, Tom got double the ammount of bars me n pete had, one because he had his bungy shirt on and another because he won the filthy hands competition, followed not that closely by a 5 year old, filthy hands being the most chocolate covered. The night of this rather packed and expensive day was spent in the Pub and then after getting food, i the getaway driver, could not get away, it appeared the boys had left subway, not seen the car and remembered the last spot we parked in so headed there.I in the meantime did around 6 laps of this square trying to find them, went back to the holiday park, gave a randomer a taxi ride for about 100 metres and earned 5 dollars for it, and then did some more circuits until coming across them after learning they had been in a club, words were exchanged.

After Dunedin we headed for Tia maru, beacuse it was saturday of the easter weekend we got ourselves a room, watched TV and ate noodles, it was merely a stop off for the next day of driving. Our goal was Auckland, and in between lay the ferry to the north island and several spots left behind during the first half of the trip. Today was tasked with getting to picton for the ferry and stopping in Christchurch. Due to poor weather we decided to stop only for lunch in the city, we found an irish pub and upon entering were given a taste of home, traditional pub, fire, football on one TV, rugby on another. We ordered our food, i had a beef sanwhich and chips and Tom and pete had bangers and mash, it was the first time in a while that we had had a real hearty and filling meal. With a pint in hand, Everton beating fulham 4-1 and a superb meal on the table, it was near Heaven for an hour. We left christchurch shortly after for Picton and the ferry, upon arrival nothing looked open at the port, we decided to sleep in the car and get the next ferry across. It seemed like a good idea to stay in the 3 door, extremley compact car with 3 very large bags because it ould save money and we were right outside the ticket office, how wrong we were. During the night a car crashed nearby and Tom checked it out, concerned with sleep me and peter stayed in the car, he came back with news and then we settled in for the night. For an hour i could not get comfy, i had the back but both front seats were downso i had around a 30cm gap to fit in, i eventually became embezzled under the 2 seats and slept extremley uncomfortably for about 45 minutes, when i woke i was struck with blind fear at not being able to move, i imagine that's how it is when you crawl through a cave and get stuck, never before being claustrophobic, i felt it's wrath until i got loose. After swapping of positions and altering seats, we eventually all ended up with a couple hours sleep in one way or another. The ferry enterained us with two great films rated both less than 3 by Tom. As we left the ferry we drove to lake Taupo passing the spot where i was caught speeding on the way down, we drove through Tongario national park and at one point were stopped dead in the road as a local farmer walk a couple of hundred sheep down the road, it was quite a sight so the cameras were drawn and pictures were shot. Upon entering Taupo at around 6:30pm, we enjoyed a fantastic Sunset over the volcano and hills across the lake while entering the city. The first night consisted of a curry (s***e), and leaglly blonde on TV. The second day was slightly more productive, a trip to the internet cafe, lunch in a surf bar, pub sesh and pool and then a hell pizza and legally blonde 2. We also got an ice cream that day, i had a chocolate dip which i learned was ice cream shoved in melted chocolate which hardened immediatley, it looked impressive but upon first bite the whole inside was nearly melted, which spanner invented that idea, a waste of $2.50, Tom had more success, on the shops 4th attempt to provide him with an ice cream they gave him it free. Before we left the next day we used the internet once more and posted our postcards before driving to Rotorua.

Christchurch

Taupo

We booked 2 night in this city which had garnered a beautifull city award, we arrived with the intention of seeing the geysers and sampling the hot pools. The first night once again involved eating and watching films we rented from the nearby store, at only $1 each for our DVD's it was a steal. The next day we went to see the Geysers, we got there and it was $35 so i decided i would stay in the car, i was not prepared to pay that much for a natural occurence, i thought it was an outrage, Tom and Pete went ahead and came back satisfied. The next stop was a hot pool, there were numerous which charged and one free one, we decided we would go to the free one and if it was not that good, then pay for one of the others. Upon arrival everyone was leaving, a good sign we may be alone, we got there to be greeted by a small waterfall in to a large pool, we could see the steam. After getting changed and descending in there were 2 other people who left shortly after, we ended up having the pool all to ourselves in the middle of a forest, it was pretty amazing and instantly became a highlight of the trip, it was considerably better because it was free.

The next day we travelled to Auckland after we bought ourselves a rubber american football for on the beach in Fiji, it didnt take long but once we got there we decided to stay near the Airport, the Top 10 holiday park was full so we went in search of somewhere else to stay, we evetually found a hotel\motel where we could spend the night, it was expensive but we needed it if we were to spend the next in the airport. We watched Munich that night and also had Baths, me and tome both came out about to faint due to extreme heat and excessive ammounts of steam. We had to drop the car off the next day around 3 so we needed to fill from 11 till then with something, we went to the cinemas once more to watch TMNT, Tom loved it, I thought it was good and Pete was severley dissapointed. After dropping of the car we were taken to the airport where we would spend the next 15 hours or so, after the battery for the psp ran out while Pete was 2-0 up against Roma (Robbie Keane double), it was time to finish lord of the rings, a superb book that i was not happy to finish. I then started a John Grisham book which Tom had raved about since the trip began, i was quickly hooked and read near 2/3rds before we boarded the plane, Tom read through while me n Pete tried to sleep, i woke up with a dead arm and pins and needles in the other. After a little confusion with our flight number, which had been changed, we went through customs and were what i can only described as an assault, were searched, scanned and searched some more, they had problems with liquid substances in our bags, i had the biggest bottle of any substance yet my bag was not searched, Tom and Pete however, endured an onslaught. We touched down rather smoothly in Fiji to be greeted by 4 native's playing us an absolute tune, and then breezed through security 10 times easier the the one we had entered.