New Zealand

I'm in New Zealand, Auckland, right now.

So, here's my update. I got to Big, they had a party last night. They had a bunch of big prizes, but I didn't win diddly-squat! About 8:45, Mike (a guy in the room I'm in) and I went to another bar, where he was going to meet up with an ex-coworker of his. We hung out with them for a while. One of the girls was a Canadian girl, who just quit her job...she worked for FreeSpirit, the company that was going to sponsor me. So she knew the people I was dealing with there (Kylie and Stephen). We went to a lounge/bar on top of one of the buildings in teh downtown area, but got kicked out, because us backpacker didn't meet up to their quality dress standards! Haha. Anyway, the view of Sydney at night was very nice from up there. We hit another bar for a while, and finally everyone went their separate ways about midnight. Mike and I headed back to the hostel, but the party was done there, and everyone was supposed to go to the Triple Ace bar after the hostel party, but that was dead too. We then went to another bar (Scubar), to see if anyone was there. I didn't get the chance to say goodbye to Court last night, and I feel bad about that. When I left the hostel party, I didn't realize that we'd be gone for so long, and assumed I'd meet up with Court and the hostel party at Triple ACe Bar later on.

So, I got a few hours sleep, woke up at 4:00Am this morning, checked out, and got the train station (Central Station), and got the 5:18 train to the airport, and got all checked in. The flight was late getting loaded up, but we finally got airborne about 8:00, about 35 minutes late. Got to Auckland just fine.

BTW, Thai Airways sucks! They don't have personal TV's for everyone, like Malaysian Airlines, the staff aren't friendly and smiley (actually, the flight attendants reminded me of Air Canada flight attendants...just there to do a job they don't enjoy, that's it). And my stupid stereo didn't work on my seat, so I couldn't listen to the movie (Kangaroo Jack)...not that it mattered, I couldn't see the screen anyway, I had a seven foot person in the seat in front of me anyway.

Anyway, got to Auckland, it's rainy and cold here. I called the Auckland Central Backpackers hostel on the freephone, and they told me how to get to their hostel, catch the Airbus from the airport, and it'll drop me off right at the ACB. So, we're driving into the city, and the bus gets a flat tire. So, we have to wait for another bus to come and pick us up. Not a big deal, but kind of funny in a way.

So, I checked into ACB, $21/night. I just checked the exchange rate, it's better than it was in Australia, $1CDN = $1.25NZ. So, the hostel is costing me less than $17CDN, which isn't that bad. I don't like the hostel, though, not sure why, not a good vibe too it. Might move in two days. I don't think they have kitchen facilities either, but I have to find out for sure.

So, I'm not sure what I'm going to do right now. It's the coldest month of the year (and rainiest), so I'm thinking I might try to go to Fiji right now, then come back to NZ later this month, and travel as teh weather starts warming up (and it doesn't rain as much). Sound like a good idea?

Anyway, that's it for now!