After nine weeks in Australia it felt a bit weird going back to an airport to get another new stamp in my passport. I'd almost forgotten what to do.
Nathalie was already in NZ after spending a few weeks in the south island with Caroline, so the plan was that I would knock around in Auckland for the weekend until they returned north from Wellington. As soon as I got to Sydney airport I quickly realised what a rubbish idea this was and so decided to get a connection to Wellington from Auckland to have a much better weekend.
Striding forthrightly and importantly up to the ticket counter in the domestic terminal I demanded, "a ticket on the next flight to Wellington please". "Certainly sir, that'll be $330". "Ah, erm, right, have you got anything cheaper?". Spoiled my moment of dynamism a bit really. But I got it sorted at a slightly less extortionate price and found myself in the shock-to-the-system situation of being slowly cooked to death by the Sydney weather in the morning to shivering in front of a log fire in Wellington in the evening.
Wellington is up there on my new list of favourite cities. So the weather wasn't up to my usual standards and the wind tries its best to fling debris into your eyes, but the relaxed atmosphere and amazing views were right up my street. Staying with Nat's cousin in his amazing seafront house helped quite a bit too.
After the long drive back to Auckland (it isn't that far really, but the Postman Pat-style roads in this country don't really encourage fast driving) I had the chance to catch up with Jamie, my old mate from Wallasey who has lived out here with his Kiwi girlfriend Lucy for a couple of years. Yet again I found myself crashing in a luxury pad in a beautiful part of town. Tough work, this backpacking.
Finding myself with time on my hands (Nathalie was working at Auckland Hospital for a couple of shifts to fund my lifestyle), I rented a Suzuki Bandit - the Ford Mondeo of motorbikes - and headed north for the day. The area north of Auckland is called the Northland (for some reason) and I had a fantastic day checking out the awesome coastlines and incredible rural scenery. Despite it getting a bit windy and chilly on the way back to Auckland I was quickly deciding that I love New Zealand (to add to all the other countries that I now love too).
Like Australia, there's nothing on the telly here either, so New Zealanders are into their sports just as much as their Antipodean neighbours. I got sucked in too, after Lucy invited me to join her on the weekly 5k road run. It's a pretty good set up really - you meet at a pub, pay 6 bucks, do the race, and get a free pint afterwards. You even get to see your times on their website. I liked it so much that I did it again the following week and even entered the 70,000 people-strong Round The Bays 8.5k race a couple of weeks later. What was happening to me?
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