So much to tell, so much bandwidth... well that works out. What follows is a mostly true and possibly accurate account of all that happened in the month of September. At least in the crazy little world I inhabit. I make no apologies for my dodgy memory. If I left something out it probably wasn't that good (or bad) anyway. Besides, who's gonna know the difference? (shush, Wiepke)
In all this time I still haven't found many airports to compete with Dublin. It's got a Butler's chocolate cafe in past security. How could anyone compete with that? Big boxes of Lir choccies purchased, CD shop browsed through and CDs remarkably resisted if I do say so myself, and it was time to sit and wait to board. Wiepke was introduced to my seemingly random outbursts of 'Go without them!' Pet peev #1: People who are checked in but still can't manage to get to their boarding gates on time. When I own my own airline there'll be none of that messing. Anyone not in their seats after the first boarding call will have their bags removed and subject to controlled explosion. That'll teach 'em!
Amazingly enough I also resisted buying any DVDs at HMV in Heathrow. I worry about myself sometimes. Got my obligatory 'I'm in a UK airport' copy of Empire, though! It never seems so expensive when you're only paying the sterling cover price. They cancelled Dark Angel! How could they?!
Random advice #1: Get the upgrade. If flying long distance with BA, pay the extra couple of hundred euro to go sit in World Traveller Plus. You can actually sleep in there! And you never have more than one person to climb over if you need to get up. And it's a much easier climb. Movies... Murder by Numbers... something to watch while eating. Usefully sleep inducing. Was I cynical about my bags being there? After the whole Montreal incident where they had 24 hours to put them in the right place for our plane... and failed, well let's just say I don't have much faith in Heathrow baggage handlers. But lo and behold, there they were!
So morning happened really fast. While Scott and Cheryl did their schoolwork, Wiepke tried to steal my mango. Then there was the SSP signing... hmm, perhaps I should be entering those couple of minutes onto Evolve! Then with the shopping. Did I mention it's humid? We had to take our shoes off visiting one of the temples and it was like walking over hot coals anywhere the concrete was in direct sunlight! Nice place, though. Colourful. Ah yes, the shopping. Luckily Nicole is a bit better at haggling than we are! Random advice #2: Do not touch the smelly fruit! It is Gack. There's no better word for it. Yes it has a real name but remember that dodgy memory I mentioned? It's orange and comes on a stick and it stinks (the fruit that is, not my memory). I'll stick to the fresh pineapple. Nicest fruit there is! So once 'I don't go shopping' girl in the corner there bought pressies for the world and his dog (now that I think of it, don't think she got me anything! hmph!), I finally got my dress. Oh yeah and Gordon's hat. Whatever possessed me to buy it knowing I'd have to cart it around in a back pack for the next month I'll never know. But hey, it still looks... only slightly bashed!
Oh wow was that seafood restaurant nice! Never had lobster before - or crab straight from the shell. Deliciously messy. Really good shrimp too. I'm so glad not to be allergic to shellfish! Finally a mad dash back to the airport. I miss my baseball cap :( Ah well, gonna have to go to Boston and get a new one (MIT of course. Harvard is so... passé!).
Next day saw us up early to get the train into Sydney. The Chinese Garden of Friendship. What a beautiful little spot in Darling harbour - well worth a visit. It covers a small enough area but there's a lot in it - and the cakes in the little tearoom up the stone steps are just gorgeous. We spent far too long in there. Not to mention the gift shop afterwards. We wandered out then around Darling Harbour and somehow managed to get lost looking for Quay Wharf (3D maps I tell ye...) but we found it eventually and ran onto the Taronga ferry.
It was a nice sailing and of course obligatory photos of the Opera House and Bridge were taken. A few minutes later we were in the cable car going to the top of the zoo. Saw a platypus! There were kanga's and koalas and nellyphants and all sorts of other stuff too but platypus! Much smaller than I always imagined but just as cool. Didn't spend too long in the zoo coz we had to get back to the city for a very important dinner date...
Met Ailish and Tom at the QEB and with very little coercion, Tom was convinced to stay for dinner with us :) I'm still not entirely surely what spatchcock is but it tasted like chicken! 'Twas a very fun meal and very cool to see Ailish again. Aonghus' turn to go visit next I think! Bring large blocks of Irish Cadbury's chocolate and you will be worshipped (which reminds me... must send some...). Well with a ridiculously early flight next morning, we soon had to call it a night and get the train back to Shalvey.
Keith is officially hero of the following morning for driving us to the airport where the apple and cinnamon bread was gorgeous and the cheese and bacon pie wasn't half bad either!
So all those micro holidays out of the way, the real one was about to begin. It was a beautiful day coming down at Christchurch International. After a little fun trying to find our shuttle bus we were finally out and on our way! They're not kidding when they call it the Garden City. Before long we were at Turret House, our B&B for the next couple of nights. Random advice #3: If you're travelling with Magic Bus and not staying at the YHA before you start, but staying YHA during your Magic travels, then you are apparently doing something very complicated and unorthodox. Leave yourself time for them to get their heads around it and have all the tickets you need ready. But major kudos to the staff at Central YHA in Christchurch for doing lots of running around to sort it all out. And for the lollipops :)
So... resisting jet lag, defying it to get as cold as we were warned it would on such a beautiful sunny day, we made our way into town. Quiet, excessively clean, hardly any traffic - we fell in love with the entire country there and then based on that tiny little sample. Wandered around a bit, saw the monument to the suffragette movement on the Avon River (apparently NZ was the first free country to give women the vote), and went up the top of Christchurch Cathedral (kinda disappointing when you're used to the size of the one in Dublin but still gothic and pretty) to get our bearings. So bearings got we headed for the Botanical gardens stopping at a little Maori craft studio in the Arts Centre on the way.
Daffodils in September! Paddocks of them! It was quite pretty and well, weird. Lots of other flowers too but no roses - wrong time of year for them even there. The Gardens are quite large - or more precisely, Hagley Park is. Perhaps not as big as the Phoenix Park but it's got the same idea. So as it approached time for the Botanical Gardens to lock up and we somehow lost our direction and it was getting dusky, we might have started to get nervous were it not for us being far too chilled out after all that flying and finally being there. It was, however, taking us up on that dare to get cold... but we soon found our way out of the Gardens and on to the main road in the park where Friday evening traffic was showing it's not-so-ugly face. So being rather cold and hungry by now we entirely by chance ended up on The Terrace - a strip of really nice (and maybe a tad trendy) restaurants. I'm sure they're really expensive by NZ terms. So we laughed at the cheap prices and picked Azure - if I remember correctly because they had seafood and nice desserts. We never got as far as dessert. Ordered anti-pasta to start. This huge plate that takes over the whole table comes out. Yes it's all nicely decorated and garnished - but with silly amounts of food(Silly lots, not silly little). So we eat away (and boy was it good squishy) and when we're polishing off the little brownies that came with it, we remember... our main courses have yet to arrive! I think we got through maybe half of our main courses before we were far too full. Then there was this really rich hot chocolate and we discovered the first (and possibly only) bad thing about NZ. What's with the marshmallows? They don't melt right in hot choccie! Bloody cold on the way home and couldn't get bubble bath anywhere but all was good :)
The following morning saw absolutely gorgeous mandarin and chocolate chip breakfast muffins. Oh my. After chatting for a bit with the four other guests from Adelaide, we headed out back into town where Wiepke went off horse riding and I got down to some serious shopping - but not too serious coz there's only so much you can carry around for a month! I hate town on Saturdays. Too many people, too much pushing and shoving, queues, all the food places crowded... Christchurch was wonderful. Found a really nice studio shop - kinda like temple bar type shops - with a nice friendly shop owner and a grey fleece I fell in love with. That quickly became my first souvenir and it's nice and warm and fluffy and Elven and mine! Then went back to Cathedral Square to eat scrummy bagels and juice and wait for Wiepke but she was obviously having far too much fun out with the horses so I continued on my way. Wombled about the museum looking at lots of funky Maori stuff and a cool New Zealand Geographic photo exhibition, sauntered about the Arts Centre which is a crafts market every weekend. Had quite a pleasant time! Then checked my messages. She fell off her horse. Doh! There were issues with turning right or left and trees being in the way... that was one almighty bruise that was gonna be a feature of the next month! But she could still walk so we went off and found a nice little noodle restaurant. So very very cheap and yummy. Headed up the gondola - a cable car up the side of the mountain so you get a cool view over Christchurch. By now it was dark so lots of lights. Oh and it was windy. Windy dark cable car... it rocked :) We thought hot choccie at the top would be good but the cafe was closed for the night. Only the ridiculously expensive (even by our standards) restaurant was open and there was an hour before the next bus home and not a whole heap to do up there. But wait... wasn't there a tradition of going to the ridiculously expensive restaurants at the top of tall American buildings for dessert? Yes there was and wow. I had plum crumble with ginger ice cream and cinnamon chantilly cream. Most magnificent thing ever. And Wiepke's chocolate cake... I'd be willing to bet it didn't see much other than chocolate, cream, and butter. Hot choccie with Drambuie too - that was rather disappointing actually. Got cold a little too fast. Let's not mention that dessert and hot choccie cost almost twice the amount dinner had. Doh! So back down on the creaky gondola, onto the bus, and home.
The next morning was a bit of a hurry to get over to the YHA in time for the shuttle to the train station. The first leg of the Magic tour began with the Tranz Alpine train across the Canterbury Plains and the Southern Alps. That's when I wrote my postcards (handily excusing any illegible writing) coz if I didn't do it then I never would. Also the Plains are flat and rather boring for quite some time. But you know how food on trains is always really dodgy and really expensive? Lamb pie. It cost practically nothing and it was gorgeous. As we approached the Alps there was a sudden mad rush to the front of the train where the open viewing carriage was. Quite fun actually, people desperately trying to click off photos of some very gorgeous landscape before the train slipped into another tunnel - but wow was it windy up there! Had a good chat with some Scottish bloke. Jumped out for a quick photo at Arthur's Pass but it was raining so didn't stay out long. Anyway, it's not like the train wasn't comfy! Back on track again and we got Chinese lessons from Ying and Jung. Must get hold of that brown paper bag that has my name in Chinese on it... Marianne from Brisbane was just across the aisle from us. I would have Leonard Cohen's 'So long Marianne' constantly playing through my head for the next few weeks. 
Oh and the rainbow... not up in the sky but on the side of the mountain... that was quite awesome.
Greymouth was grey. It was rainy by the time we got there. The hostel (the first of our YHA stays) wasn't too far from the station and it was adequate enough. The nice owner (name has slipped from my mind) told us about a tour leaving in half an hour and booked us on it. Coz really there's not a whole lot else to do there. So there was us and Marianne and then on the minibus we met Cheryl and Ann. Trevor I think was our driver to the pancake rocks. Very nice man, knew lots about local history and showed us all the cool stuff. 
The pancake rocks were quite funky - columns built of what looks like layers of rock but it's all the same rock. They're not quite sure how they were made. There were big blow holes too with water shooting up - very difficult to succeed in photographing! We went to a beach then - it was still nice despite being a bleak afternoon. We were lucky the rain held off most of the time we were out of the bus. Lots of starfish on that beach.
When we got back to Greymouth we went to the $3 barbecue. All the sausages and salad you can eat for $3. Or steak bbq for $8. Perhaps not the most wholesome or tasty feed we had but not too shabby at all!
The following morning we finally got on a Magic Bus. With an English driver. But that's okay coz Cornelius (Con) is a very cool man indeed and he had a big box of minidiscs brimful of good music. He started by introducing us to The Feelers - a mighty fine Kiwi band - and for that I'll love him forever. Everything was tickity-boo.
Our first stop was at a jade factory in... um... some little town I can't remember. But it had a nice little coffee shop with hundreds of bizarre teapots on shelves all around!
Next stop - goldpanning in Ross. Bought some hat and gloves there coz we were starting to get the hint about how cold it is, and being en route to the glaciers it seemed like a not half bad idea. We went for a walk instead of goldpanning (and I posted my postcards). Pretty enough little place but teeny tiny. I'd go nuts within a day. Though apparently it's 95% men...
Con got us all our accommodation and started booking activities. The Adelaide folk back in Christchurch recommended helihiking above the standard glacier hike and though it was a lot pricier, we figured what the hey. How many chances are you going to get in your life?
Too cloudy. That's why the helicopter wouldn't go up the glacier. Strike One. We were gonna go on the regular hike but that would have involved rushing out of the hostel in ten minutes and getting back too late to do any shopping so we made an executive decision to not rush, to do some laundry, get in some shopping and cook cheap like, and maybe then go for a walk up to the glacier. Good plan. I introduced Wiepke to the joys of pastrami in pasta, all our laundry got done, and we had quite a pleasant walk. Didn't make it as far as the glacier coz we figured if we went much further it would be dark soon and we'd have a long road with no lighting to walk back along wearing dark clothes. Didn't strike us as an astonishingly bright idea so we went as far as Peter's Pool and saw the glacier from a distance, then sauntered back in the drizzle chatting away and noticing how cool the place is and how Lord of the Rings could have been filmed so perfectly nowhere else in the world. We were just starting to get tired and were still a distance out of town when one of the hiking buses came by on their way home and stopped for us! We didn't even wave them down, they're just nice that way. Apparently the hiking wasn't so great because of the weather.
The hostel there is gorgeous. Very modern and quite large. Massive open fire and very comfy sofas. We sat there reading all evening and even got a reasonably early night! Definitely a good day. But so were they all. Mostly.
The next day was wet. So very very wet. There's this cool lake where the water is so dark with natural tannins that when there's no wind or rain it might as well be a mirror. This is Lake Matheson. Thing is when it's lashing down with rain you really don't get the effect. You just get soaked through walking to see what looks like every other lake in the rain. It was an annoyingly long stop with very little to do when you get back to the coffee shop soaked to the bone. Still, there was hot choccie and chatting and drying off by the superser. So when we got to Roaring Billy which is supposedly this very impressive waterfall about ten minutes walk from the road (and even more impressive for the buckets of rain feeding into it no doubt), no one would get off the bus. Poor Con. He was trying but the weather conspired against us. He was trying to take as long as he could to get to Makarora for reasons which will soon become clear. We did stop at a smaller closer waterfall that some of did jump out and run the 30 seconds to. Then there was a salmon farm. Yeah, he really did try.
The following morning was beautiful and sunny. Guess what? Makarora is actually a nice little spot when all that grey goes away! Everyone was still glad to leave.
We stopped in Haast for shop made sandwiches. They were horrible. The place was boring. Moving on.
Our first stop was at Puzzling World which has this cool 3D maze. 3D because it has staircases up and over the standard fence maze. It's outdoors and luckily enough that day was glorious sunshine. The aim is to get to each of the four coloured towers in the corner and then get out. They estimate it takes people 30-45 minutes to complete. The bus drivers leave plenty of time when they stop here :) We did really well. After 20 minutes we'd been to all four towers. So pondering how great we were, we wandered towards the exit. We got there 20 minutes later. Inside the building there's lots of optical illusions and really good holograms. I first saw the microscope ones in the Technorama in Winterthur - the hologram is a microscope but when you position yourself just right at the eyepiece you can see through it to the slide. Funky. There was an angled room with water flowing up and pool balls rolling up the table. Ames room and lots of other stuff from first year psychology. Of course I had to buy a little Tower of Hanoi - with 8 discs!
Wanaka itself was just gorgeous. Reminded me a lot of Switzerland with snowy Alps, big lakes, and pretty houses. Lake Wanaka is full of rainbow trout. The law is you're not allowed buy or sell rainbow trout in NZ so there's no commercial fishing in the lakes and the trout get huge. Also the visitor centre sells fish food. Yes it sounds not very exciting but we had a few minutes to kill before getting back on the bus so tried it out... they're tiny dolphins I tell ye! There was leaping from the water and fighting for the pellets of... whatever it was! Also got a big stick to scare of the ducks but the fish were quite good at doing that for themselves. Oh wow, the chocolate and banana cheesecake. We found a really nice coffee shop and ate salmon quiche which was yummy. I wish I coulda finished that cheesecake. It was so good! It's also a good stop for adventure activities coz it's not as busy and cheaper than Queenstown. So I hear anyway.
The whole drive into Queenstown was just gorgeous. Much of it was snow capped mountains one side of the road, gently rolling green hills covered in sheep the other side. It was Switzerland and Ireland rolled up into one! We stopped for a while at the AJ Hackett bungy bridge and watched a few people jump. None of our group were feeling brave/crazy enough but it was a good buzz just watching. Cold though! We piled back into the bus and made for Queenstown. Along the way Con pointed out a few lakes that were under water.
The magic words here are Kiwi Discovery! They handle all the activity booking for Magic and basically take care of everything ye need. It was late enough by the time we got in after spending most of the day in Wanaka and the YHA is a little bit out of town. A bit 'institutional' too. It's a nice walk along the lake but when it's cold it's cold. Again, Alps and lakes and the whole Swiss thing going for it. Even more so when it began to snow! Big huge snow flakes like I've never seen before, and it was getting dark so lights were coming on. Very Christmasy. After booking everything we needed to book in... Kiwi Discovery! (Con trained us well), we had a little time to kill so went to the internet cafe that give Magic travellers a discount. It was nice and warm :) Sent a few hyper giggly emails about the snow and how much fun I was having, and went to the Maori cultural centre for dinner.
The dinner was fantastic. It was buffet (hangi) style with lots of traditional Maori food. The soup was yummy. The buffet was yummy (mmmm... kumara). The desserts were gorgeous. And did I mention the kiwi wine? Good squishy. Damn good squishy. And all for not a whole heap of money. And then there was the concert! We were right up front so got to see all the detail in the costuming and face painting. Lots of Maori songs and of course the Haka - then all the men in the audience had to get up and do the Haka. Then all the women did something akin to the hokey pokey but in Maori. It was a great evening and highly recommended if you're ever in Queenstown and not all that interested in the million and one ways to break your legs.
Again not a night stop but it was a full day tour - we were picked up at 7am and didn't get back until quite late. Milford Sound isn't that far away (it's also not really a Sound but who's counting?) but there's these lakes and mountains in the way. 72 kilometres from Queenstown, it takes 5-6 hours depending on road conditions. Slept all the way to Te Anu. Not much there except The Moose! The rest of the way... wow. They say it's beautiful in the sunshine. They saw it's gorgeous in the rain with all the waterfalls. They say it's just spectacular in the snow. So to go the day after lots of rain and snow when it's nice and sunny... we got lucky :) 
The national park looked just amazing with snowy trees hanging over the roads. Finally got to see some Mirror Lakes under the right conditions. Lots of kea birds around. Very cute and cheeky critters - actually a bit of a nuisance by all accounts. They're by no means timid and like to steal things and hang out the door of the bus. Had to put the snow chains on the bus as we got further into the mountains. Filled up our water bottles at Monkey Creek - where the water is 99% pure and tastes good. Absolutely gorgeous spot too. Then there was Homer Tunnel. A monument to the 'She'll be right' kiwi attitude. It goes right through the mountain and miraculously when the tunnelling teams from both sides finally met, they were only a couple of inches off. It's a two way tunnel. Most of the way it's only wide enough for one vehicle (especially if it's a bus). Quite a long tunnel too, with only a few passing points. It's in the middle of an avalanche zone. There's no air conditioning. There's not a whole heap in the way of internal support. No lighting. But she'll be right. If being told all this before going through the tunnel wasn't nerve racking enough, the rather steep and icy hair pin bends to get down the mountain out the other side sure was! But Alan being another great driver with lots of interesting titbits on the surrounding environment (and the stupidity of the various peoples that seemed hell bent on destroying it), we soon got down to where we could safely remove the snow chains and drive a little more quickly, quietly and comfortably the rest of the way.
It being a long drive, there's a deal you can get to fly from Milford Sound back to Queenstown. Pricey, but it would only take half an hour and there'd be time to maybe see something of Queenstown before leaving at 8am the following morning. Plus all the snowy mountains were bound to be gorgeous from the air, so why not? We signed up and then quickly ran for our cruise around the fjord (we were a little late due to having to snow chain but our boat waited for us). The Friendship was a nice little boat with nice people intent on helping you see just as much as possible. And being a smaller boat than some of the others, it could get in closer to the rocks and waterfalls. 
The whole fjord was just amazingly gorgeous. There were plenty of waterfalls after the rain and snow. Clouds were coming in over the sun now but the rain held off and as long as you were wrapped up warm, it wasn't too cold on deck. So long as you went inside to warm up once in a while! There were dolphins. Lots and lots and lots of dolphins. Just as we were supposed to be heading back in to get our bus or plane back, a whole school of them came by... so the boat turned around to follow them for a while! Also got to see a penguin, a seal, and a white heron. So after chasing the wildlife around, we finally returned to dock. Strike Two. It had become too cloudy and the planes weren't flying back. Oh well, another five hours on the bus back home. Slept through most of it!
Next morning we rolled over and slept as those getting back on the bus got up. Turned out Christie was staying the extra couple of nights too... (and so Billy Joel's 'Christie Lee' took up residence in my head) We went and did some shopping coz I was feeling the need to buy a new bag. Dunedin is a nice enough little town. It looks much better when it's not pouring with rain. Wiepke found a shop filled with hand crafted wooden things where she went nuts over a few bowls. Then there was a nice bag shop where I got my funky 3 in 1 bag. Headed back to the hostel for a quick lunch before the wildlife tour out to Otago penninsula which Christie was signed up on too. Much better weather than the previous days! 
We actually saw a Royal Albatross - there's a colony there but September wasn't a great time of year to see them as it's between breeding seasons so there's not so many around. So we were lucky again! Saw more birds than I can remember, penguins coming out of the sea and wobbling up the hills to their nests, sealions at horseplay, seals basking, oh and the odd sheep. Quite a pleasant (but tiring) walk across hills and beaches too! We got back and had another night in, convincing Christie she really did want to come driving with us the next day...
There's not a helluva lot around Dunedin. Had to ring around a few places to get a rental car at an affordable price on a Sunday but we finally got one and headed out. It was a nice sunny day so that helped! Drove an automatic for the first time. My left hand and foot were bored! Finally tried some TipTop ice cream in Middlemarch. Boysenberry flavour - Dave was right, it is good stuff! Wiepke managed to get some cheapy sunglasses so she could drive to Ranfurly. Yeah, not a lot in Middlemarch. Not so much in Ranfurly either! There's some guy who was the first surveyor in New Zealand... or something. His pink nail polish was particularly stylish! But it was a fun drive on a nice day in good company and the roads were pretty decent. Oh and well sign posted. Even the plaques get sign posts! Palmerston was just spooky. Spooky little township. The most excitement on the drive was the bush fire - quite something to see helicopters dumping out barrels of water! Huge stretches of blackened gorse along the roads and lots of fire trucks and police cars!
Finally got back to Dunedin and circled around a bit trying to get to the petrol station. That night we made pancakes for dinner and they were Yummy.
It's a long long drive from Dunedin to Christchurch. All the Magic drivers hate it (I'm sure the Kiwi Experience folk do too) but the sign of a good driver is one who doesn't show it. We missed Con a lot on that drive. Grumpy Scotty made it all too obvious. There was a quick stop leaving Dunedin on Baldwin Street which is the steepest in the world. Not many of us made it to the top but that's where the best photographs and best views were. For brekkie we stopped at a beach with spherical boulders. Another feature no one is quite sure about. They do look quite funky. We drove through Palmerston again. It still looked spooky. Lunch stop was in Timaru which was beautiful and sunny and the first sign that we were heading north into better weather. Had a gorgeous chicken and apricot pie in a little cake shop there. Would have liked to look around a little more (there was a cool looking odd shop on the corner we didn't have time to check out) but we still had a long way to go to Chch. Best thing to do was try sleep through it. Scotty didn't have much in the way of music and wasn't exactly talkative. Well we got there in the early evening to the hostel that had been so nice to us weeks earlier. Nice enough place! We went back to that really nice noodle restaurant and had more yummy food for cheap, then went to catch a movie. Rabbit Proof Fence - it's an Aussie movie about half-caste Aborigines being taken from their family. Quite good. Impressive kid in the lead role.
Strike Three. We got to Kaikoura and since I was the only one interested, the fishing trip was cancelled. And it was too windy. Beautiful cloudless sky but up at 1500 feet it was too windy for flying. Was someone telling me not to fly this holiday? So we got to Kaikoura. Wiepke went swimming with dolphins, Christie went whale watching, and I found myself at a bit of a loss. But not to worry, it was still a warm sunny day and there was plenty of it left and Kaikoura is quite a beautiful seaside town with snow capped mountains over the bay making it all the prettier. I went to the tourist office to see what I could do - and signed up to go star gazing that night. Then hired a bike and went exploring. Had quite a nice cycle and it was actually really good to spend some time on my own for a while. It's a lovely area and there's a most excellent road for free wheeling down! Tried some chocolate eclair flavour TipTop ice cream, checked out a shop selling lots of Paua shell stuff, generally had a good and peaceful day until it was time to go back and have a rather experimental dinner (less said the better!). Of course by then it was getting rather cloudy so the stargazing trip was cancelled. Doh! Well it was a nice hostel so we sat about and did some writing and reading and eating of chocolate. The YHA hostel is a bit of a walk out of town (allow half an hour to walk it comfortably) but the view is fantastic and it's a nice walk in the sunshine.
Next day the three of us went to explore Wellington. We found a cool toy shop which was some consolation for being but a couple of days early for the lego exhibition. We spent quite some time in there, coming out just in time to meet the rain. Doh! Still, we braved it and went into town and found the cable car up to the Cable Car Museum and the Botanical Gardens. The Gardens are pretty and big but we soon got very very wet indeed! But lunch was good and by the time we finished there were blue skies once more. But it was still windy. 
We sauntered about some more, crossed a cool wooden bridge, and headed for Te Papa. The best museum ever. We spent almost five hours in there and got around maybe half of it. The first part was all about the 101 natural disasters waiting to happen to New Zealand. Yeah, Wellington is on eight fault lines - two of them major. Pacific plate and all that. Add that to the cable cars and the steep streets and the waterfront and you might be able to work out that second American city it gets compared with. Then there's all the volcanoes around the Auckland area and of course tsunamis are always an option... yeah, go see this country while it's still there! (If I learnt anything standing on top of the Empire States Building in September of 2000 telling the World Trade Centre it'll still be there for me to go up next time I visit, it's not to count on it) Very informative exhibits and we spent quite some time looking around them before going up to the Maori floor. It was awesome. Much more elaborate than the Christchurch museum. Lots of information on the Marae and Maori people, lots of samples of arts and crafts. The usual interactive displays. This museum is well worth a visit. Was it that night I got my hankering for steak?
By the time we got to Taupo the weather had turned bitter cold. The YHA there is nice enough but it's better suited to Summer weather. Still, the kitchen had fresh lemons and a help-yourself herb garden which always makes me happy. I think that was the night of salmon tagliatelle. Didn't see much of Taupo bar a quick run down to the lake the following morning. It really was too cold to get up to much!
Maunganui isn't too far from Taupo but there are a lot of mountains to be crossed so it can be slow enough going. Can be quite diesel burning too. Are you still holding that earlier thought? We stopped off in a few places along the way because we were now in the thermal heart of NZ. There were bubbling mud pools, Craters of the Moon park which is covered in sulphur scented steam, Huko Falls which are the biggest in NZ if I recall correctly, and of course, Rotorua. This is somewhere we might have stopped had we a little more time - or if there had been a bus coming through the following day and not two days later. We went for quite a nice walk around about. A lot of people are bothered by the sulphur smell but I didn't notice it much after the first few minutes. Another beautiful day! We wandered by the Polynesian spas and saw lots more mud holes and steamy bits. The town itself is pleasant too but we soon had to reboard the bus and head for Maunganui... no, we had to sit on the bus for an hour waiting for the people who had gone zorbing (big rubber bubble pushed down a hill) to come back. So we're already behind schedule and we've got those diesel burning hills to cross. But we're getting there... and then we stop getting there. About ten minutes from Maunganui the bus stops and Mungoo doesn't know why. Oh yes and his phone is out if credit. As luck would have it, the Stray bus (a recent company into the Magic/Kiwi market) is right behind us and the driver is ex-Magic. He stops and knows Mungoo so lends him his phone and solves the riddle. A tank of diesel last filled in Napier will not get you all the way to Maunganui. So we sit there another couple of hours waiting for Magic to get a mechanic sent out with diesel. Of course letting a tank run dry like that is not such a good thing and it takes time to bleed air out of it and what not... eventually it occurs to him to maybe organise some cabs to come out and bring us to our hostels.
Now the nearest YHA hostel is in Tauranga and Mungoo did warn us that this is a fair bit out of the way and there's not a lot to do. The pick up the following day is at noon so it can be a very boring morning when you're not in easy distance of the Mount. He recommended staying at Pacific Lodge Backpackers. For that recommendation all is forgiven. Random advice #5: Stay here. This was by far the best hostel of the whole trip. The owners, Heather and Murray, love what they do and it shows. Knowing the circumstances of our arrival into Mount Maunganui, they greeted us by telling us to drop our bags and not worry about checking in until we'd had some pizza, biccies, and hot drinks. When we did all get around to checking in they accepted YHA cards for discount purposes just because they wanted to be nice. They organised a trip the following morning to climb the Mount and suggested another option... fly your own plane out in Tauranga airport. After telling him about my previous attempts Murray used the opportunity to slag mercilessly. Passed the night playing ping pong and air hockey. We were sharing the hostel with an under 12's boys football team so we finished off their gorgeous apple crumble after they went out to burn off some energy before bed. There was much chatting with Murray, then the coaches once the footballers returned, then more air hockey.
Next morning looked a bit grey but Murray phoned the flight centre and persistence finally paid off. They were bhappy to go! Soon we were at the airport and next thing I knew I was pulling back the throttle and taking off :):) Wow wow wow wow wow. It rocked. It was a tiny two seater plane and we stayed at 1500 feet and circle the Mount the others were climbing. It was all so good... and I want more. We came back for more table tennis, pies from the nearby garage, and another chat with Heather and Murray. I may well be back there some time soon to get my pilot's licence.
Next day brought us to our proper Auckland accommodation. The most wonderful home of George and Sandra Langton across the road from One Tree Hill Domain. Random advice #6: If you like your breakfast then you've gotta stay here. They do the most fantastic spread every morning that means you won't be hungry again until dinner. It's a bit out of the centre but the bus service isn't bad and it is walkable - but it's a long walk. We walked back into town that first day stopping off at every CD store I could find (and yet 'I don't shop' girl bought far more than I did...). It's a nice city and there's a nice Borders store that do good hot chocolate. If I recall correctly we were aiming to get to the art gallery because it's free in on Mondays but by the time we got all those CDs it was a bit late. We went back to the B&B and vegged out - me in front of the TV watching some of the Emmy's. Apparently there were counterfeit Emmy's going around - and you can tell the counterfeits because they have visible genitalia!
Breakfast on Tuesday morning was pancakes with banana, bacon, and maple syrup. Silly amounts of fruit, toast, and everything else. We went our separate ways and I walked the long but pleasant walk out to Kelly Tarlton's. It's an aquarium and a bit pricey for what it is but there were penguins and lots of pretty fish! The snowcat ride and the walk-in tank were both quite cool. Got the bus back, we watched the pigeons in Starbucks, then went for a walk up K road which is supposed to be the alternative shopping area. Wasn't majorly impressed with it to be honest (though there was a chinese shop with cool statues of kung fu poses I'd have loved to have brought back for Fergal if they weren't quite so fragile). We headed back into Sky City then for our dinner and magic show deal. That was cool - it was a buffet eat what you want dinner and dessert bar so of course there were ridiculous amounts of really good food and even better dessert. Then the magic and escape show. It was short but entertaining enough! Worth seeing once but I wouldn't pay to see it again.
Scrambled eggs and smoked salmon (and yummy little apple pies) started off my day of shopping. There's a big outlet store park not far from where we were staying so I went down and got me some jeans and runners (I had plans for my old runners that they would never return home) before busing back into town to saunter around Victoria Park Market and the trendy arty Parnell. Found a gorgeous medieval clothing store in Parnell (right beside the chocolate boutique). I wanted to buy it all but of course it was a bit out of price range much like that little shop in Salem. Met Wiepke drooling over glass vases. The hot chocolate in the chocolate boutique was gorgeous. We went to The Other Side for yummy lamb chops and then back to the boutique for more hot chocolate. This time I tried their extra thick one. Liquid chocolate. Absolutely divine and if you don't drink it fast enough, it will solidify.
Rostis and bacon with plum sauce for Thursday's breakfast. This was a day for wandering and enjoying the Auckland green belt. Spent the morning around One Tree Hill Domain, Cromwell Park, and Auckland Domain before going out for some four wheel drive quad biking! It took a while to get used to it but it soon became good fun - if very very mucky! And so ended the life of my runners. That night we met up with Christie for the last time (she'd been to the Corromandels and back since) and we went to Tony's. It's a steak restaurant that's been there for ages so as the guidebook says, it must be doing something right! I had steak stuffed with crab meat and served with butter sauce and it was utterly gorgeous. More.
Friday morning saw corn and feta fritters. Read for an hour in Albert Park before climbing the inside of the Sky Tower up to the highest observation deck. That was a fun climb up inside the mast, rigged out in lots of climbing gear and stylish illuminous orange coveralls! There was our guide Levi, a work experience student, me and another paying customer. It was a bit of a laugh and we got to stop and watch a dvd half way up. The climb down was a bit sore on the hands though. So after all that climbing, my bright idea for the afternoon was to go roller blading on Tamaki Drive. Haven't been on skates since I was a kid. 
Never been on roller blades. Miraculously I managed not to fall but I got plenty of bruises from the 'grab something' approach to braking! That evening we had vague plans to go see some comedy but time got the better of us and common sense too since our flight was at silly o'clock the following morning. Instead we went across the road to the planetarium in One Tree Hill Domain. It was a good night for it. New moon and not too much cloud. After the dome show (where we finally got the Southern Cross pointed out to us) we went up to look through the big telescope at the real deal. That was pretty awesome - pointing at a point of light we could barely see then looking through the telescope at the huge cluster of stars it really was. Definitely worth the extra few dollars - got in cheaper with the YHA card anyway!
We need to keep our national airline. I have no issue with my taxes being used to help Aer Lingus keep afloat in light of last year's events for one simple reason. To step into an Aer Lingus plane and be greeted by Aer Lingus staff with Irish accents is to already be home. It's great to have cheap airlines and plenty of competition, but at the end of a long journey, there's nothing like stepping aboard your national carrier. We chatted the whole way back to Dublin, excited to be home. And our baggage made it home too! Colour me impressed!
And so back to Ranelagh where there was pressies, random unpacking, reading a month's worth of Armengar archives, Roswell and Gilmore Girls watching, and finally... sleep.