so I left wellington to get to auckland on a 12 hour bus journey - fun! But it was nice scenery looking out the window, lots of spring lambs were bouncing around the fields. I finally got back to my hostel in auckland at around 9pm and was surprised and pleased to see so many old faces still around there. Its such a friendly hostel :)
The next day I left fairly early to catch the bus to the airport to get down to Queenstown. I had the afternoon to myself to look round and catch up on a few bits and bobs.
The next day i was up early to catch the bus to Milford Sound. It was on a tour bus so we took a very scenic drive through the countryside, with lots of stops to look at the views and go on little walks.
I got to milford around 1pm and had lunch with my future boss and got taken to my room. I do like the fact that we all get our own rooms there - no dorms for a while!!! I was told that I could go on as many cruises on the sound as I liked during my little visit there. I wasnt planning on going on one on the first day, but then someone said it was going to rain tomorrow so I should see the sound in good weather, so I headed off for the last sailing of the day. It was very pretty and we saw lots of seals on the seal rock.
That evening I went to sample the blue duck bar where I'd be working. Met the bar manager and had a few drinks with some of the staff which was nice.
The next day I went on a longer cruise around midday. This one stopped off at a few more sights around the sound and explained things in a bit more detail. As it had chucked it down with rain in the night, the waterfalls were huge! We stopped the boat under one of them and collected some glasses of waterfall water to try. It was slightly green coloured water because of the tanins in the moss and stuff on the rocks, but it tasted lovely! This cruise also included a trip to an underwater discovery centre in the Sound. This is a little underwater observatory about 10m below the surface. It was nice to be able to see what lives under all the water. I saw some 11 legged starfish - 11 legs! who needs that many?!? And some anenomes and such like. The interesting thing was that there's so much rain water in the region, there's always a top layer of freshwater in the sound, about 4 metres. It doesnt mix with the salt water as they're different densities, so you get both salt and freshwater fish living there.
The next day I went on another couple of boat trips. it was a lovely sunny morning so we had really good views of the sound first thing. We saw a penguin which was great! He was a very oblging chap who came out onto the rocks as soon as the boat pulled up and had a good look about. And I went on a final tour at around 1pm before I had to get on the bus back to queenstown. The weather was really turning at that point and the cloud had come down a lot. On the way back to shore, they announced that the Milford road (the only road in and out of milford sound) was closing at 5.30 that night because they were expecting a massive storm and loads of snow - good job I managed to get out when I did, they weren't expecting to reopen the road for several days!
The next day I flew back to Auckland. They put me on an earlier flight out of Queenstown than I was expecting as the bad weather from milford sound was heading over to Queenstown and they werent sure if the later flight would take off or not. It worked brilliantly for me as I didnt have as long to wait for my connecting flight to auckland then.
I spent the weekend in Auckland. I went out with my hostel friends on the friday night, we had a good dance down by the viaduct! The next day my friend Sarah from Wellington came up to Auckland for a couple of days before she left NZ to go to Japan for a couple of months so it was nice to see her again before she left. We went out on the saturday night for a few drinks and a bit more dancing. On the sunday, we met up with Kirsty who used to live in the hostel with me. We went to her new house to see her Spoodle (that's a cross between a spaniel and a miniature poodle - they're all the rage in Auckland) puppy called Henry - he was lovely! We were going to take him for a walk on the beach at Takapuna on the North Shore, but the weather was so changeable, we left him behind. Plus, that meant we could go for a cheeky pint after our walk.
So we went for a pint, then we went to teh viaduct for lunch and another pint or two... then we went to another Mac's bar somewhere close to the big football stadium in auckland... then we went out for a meal at my fave Ponsonby restaurant, Thai Me Up. A very nice way to spend a sunday!
the next day I navigated Auckland in the communal hostel Wicked camper van at some disgusting hour of the morning to drop sarah off at the airport. then I had to decide what to do with the next few weeks. I had planned to get some temp work in auckland for a couple of weeks to tide me over until mum and dad arrived, but the agency let me down, so I was left with the dilemma of hanging around Auckland, where I've already lived for ages and feel like I've done all there is to do there, or sod it and go on a road trip... I opted for the latter :)
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