Road Trip

Trip Start Feb 22, 2011
1
4
16
Trip End Ongoing


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Flag of New Zealand  , North Island,
Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Our trip to head south started with the four of us driving to Auckland in the pouring rain. By pouring, I mean periods of whiteouts while Mijin was driving and getting soaked trying to run 10 feet to the door of the gas station. We stayed in a really nice apartment style hotel in the city center. We had to walk to the Korean restaurant we were going to because the cabby decided it wasn't far enough to take us even though it was about a mile away, and it was still pouring with rain! We ate our weight in food at the restaurant.
Korean Shack
Korean Shack
It was so delicious! I'm pretty sure that it only took about 10 minutes from the time it was served until it was gone. The tables had bells to ring your server which "accidentally" got pressed a couple of times during the meal. Actually, one of them was to order some mandus for takeout so I don't feel too bad. After getting ready we went to the Honey Bar for a 30th birthday party. It was still raining but the roof bar had a canopy, which was a good thing because as I'm sure you guessed, it was still chucking rain! They had an incredible ice sculpture built like a ski slope that you poured shots down and drank from the bottom. Amazing! Ryan and Alex reminisced about their glory days at uni and reintroduced themselves to sambuca! See pictorial evidence below.

We all awoke after about 5 hours sleep (pretty good considering!) and drove to Raglan to see Hannah and Otis. All the guys and Hannah went surfing while Mijin and I enjoyed a nice coffee in town and then headed back to the house to relax and prepare ourselves for the amazing lamb Hannah was cooking. The rain was relentless and was still coming down so we didn't get to do much around the area, but we'll head back over there next month.

Our flight to Christchurch went really smoothly. We were a little caught off guard that for domestic flights they don't check your id and you can take liquids on the flight. They have a very relaxed attitude about it all which we appreciated! On the shuttle from the airport we saw some of the damage to houses, buildings and could see the leaning hotel in the city center. We got our van which was not the most horribly painted so we were happy. We stayed in Dunedin last night with Alex and Mijin's friend Andy, and Ryan and Andy went for a surf right across the street from his house. We're off to do more exploring and camping in the Catlin's the next couple days. Hopefully the rain doesn't follow us!!!
Auckland hotels Slideshow

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