Seasons Greetings!
Trip Start
Aug 10, 2010
1
25
31
Trip End
Feb 03, 2011
Auckland, North Island, New Zealand
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
We were greeted in Auckland by four solid days of rain and everyone telling us how wonderful the weather had been up until this point. We couldn’t really complain though as every news report was detailing how awful the snow was in the UK and how the whole place was at a standstill!
The sun finally shone on our holiday and it has been great since. Christmas day was lovely and we started the day with a BBQ & champagne breakfast (as you do!) and it was followed by a family Christmas lunch/dinner. For all of you who have asked if Kirsty has actually had 'shrimps on the barbie’ (cue the bad Aussie accent)… you’ll be happy to hear that we did indeed have prawns on the BBQ as part of our continual Christmas feeding session.
We had the opportunity to go away for a couple of days in between Christmas and New Years with our good friends, Sarah and Nick. This trip south towards the middle of the North Island included various stops along the way with the highlight being Waitomo Caves. The main attraction of the caves are the thousands of Glow Worms that leave you marvelling at the chemical process that allows these little bugs to glow! We had a fantastic few days.
We saw in the Kiwi New Year with friends and then due to the wonders of technology and Skype, we also saw in the British New Year 13 hours later with our friends who were partying in our hometown of Horley. We ‘attended’ the party for well over an hour, had a great time catching up with everyone and they even spun the web camera around to the TV at midnight so we could see Big Ben and the fireworks mark the start of 2011 – it was a lot of fun and the bonus was… virtual parties don’t leave you with a hangover!
We now have a week left in New Zealand before heading to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam which is the final leg of our journey. We’ll send a further update just before we leave NZ.
You can tell you are in New Zealand when...
it is common place to see both adults and kids wandering around supermarkets, shopping malls and just about anywhere... in bare feet! There is a popular t-shirt here that sums up the whole attitude perfectly... No shirt.. No shoes... No worries!
Comments
You all look so nice and warm I would give my right arm for some sun shine ( heat) we need some in the UK. Enjoy the rest of your journey take care and we look forward to greeting you at this end. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
'Keep staunch' is it Kirsty? Hope youre having a lovely time see you when you back in the UK. x