KIA ORA!

I'm now in Downtown Auckland, chilling in the hostel. After my dismal flight(s) to get here I stayed in a hotel (which I am now trying to claim back from Virgin Australia because it was their fault) Then on Wednesday afternoon I went to stay with cousin Tim and Maree, plus their two daughters. It was good to catch up with the New Zealand chapter of my family and I'll no doubt be seeing them again soon.

Yesterday I checked in to the Fat Camel after a meal with Tim, Maree and the kids before being dropped off at the hostel, which is between 'Mermaids' the strip club and 'Lipstick' the massage parlour (where the Thai ladies look old, I mean, really old). The hostel itself is a bit scummy and there is a weird smell coming from our floor's common room/kitchen. Apart from that it's OK. Auckland itself is a lot cheaper than the Australian cities I've visited, though the exchange rate of 0.50p to the NZD means working out how much I'm paying is easy and it isn't that bad (got a Chinese dinner for £5 and it was pretty good)
 
The hostel does have a bar downstairs, which is kind of cool. Thursday night is the 'bar crawl' and I went along to get to know people/learn a few bars. It was OK although the bars all seemed remarkably similar (I would later find out that Auckland doesn't have any proper clubs, just bars playing the same songs as the other bars)

Here's a few pictures, the usual kind of pictures from nights out.

I met lots of people, although few of them were from my hostel, I've been thinking I might look for an apartment anyway, but that's for another day. One of the ladies I did meet (Kimi) was, shall we say 'keen' to go back to my hostel... so we did. Don't worry, I'm not going to go all '50 Shades of Grey' on you, but I will make a joke about eating 'Japanese' later on.

Next morning, after some more loving (as soon as the room was empty, obviously, it's just common courtesy), we went our separate ways because we both had stuff to do, although my stuff was walking around taking pictures.

The following picture was too gory for this blog

The Harbour Bridge

Later on Kimi and I met up for a Chinese (because I'd eaten sushi the night before (BAM!)) and then went to a couple of bars and just chilled out.

Well, it was pretty chilled out until the Hari Krishna's appeared!

HARI HARI KRISHNAS!

 

We ended up in the Viaduct area and sat by the fire at Danny Doolans (the place where I had a meal with Tim and Maree the day before) listening to some acoustic duo playing everything from Floyd to The Jam, then a couple more pictures...

Pictured: A couple more pictures

...before heading back to my hostel (because Kimi's is a 14 bed dorm that only gets cleaned once a week) to lay around and watch South Park. So not a bad start to my stay in New Zealand and next weekend I should be starting the weird farm job that I'm not too sure about and is probably a drug farm or something.

Today I will sign up to Adecco, the job agency, because I've been told they're actually quite good (unlike those ones in Sydney that want you to pay upfront), I'll also update the blog (done) and then... hmmm... Not sure, but if I do anything else then I'll be sure to write it on this blog.

Here's another picture of the Sky Tower

17 Hours to make a 3 hour journey

Written 26th June 2012
You may have read my previous post about how I had to get a connecting flight in Brisbane to go to New Zealand, when I was starting in Melbourne. Well, after I got on the plane from Melbourne to Brisbane I was already 20 minutes late, add that to the four hour delay I had thanks to the cancelled flight, plus the two hours I had already been at the airport and you can see where this is going...

My view of Brisbane

An easy flight next to the emergency exit on the wing (those wings seem to wobble a lot) followed by getting a train to Brisbane International as the domestic part isn't attached and onto the 6pm flight to Auckland. Which is now leaving at 8pm.

Thanks, Virgin Australia! Now I will have spent 12 hours going nowhere/the wrong bloody way before even moving an inch towards Auckland.



Oh, it gets better...

The look on everybody's faces was one of just straight up pissed offness. Nobody was impressed and no amount of 'refreshment vouchers' could change that. I very highly doubt anybody there will be using Virgin Australia again after today.

With my ETA hitting the '12 hours later than I should have been there' I asked a staff member about Virgin doing the decent thing and paying for me to stay at a hotel for the night as they had ruined my plans to stay at my cousin's place. 'No' was the short answer 'because I will have reached my destination and they only pay for accommodation if somebody misses a connecting flight because of the airline' but I did get a number to call to try and claim back the cost of a hotel room, which I will call later on and they had better be willing to help or else they're going to have one hell of a recorded conversation for training purposes. I might even ask if I can get my fare back too, seeing as $300 for a flight that was 12 hours late is not what I was paying for.

I'm about to board the plane. It's 21:00

I had a chat with Tim, explaining why I was still in Brisbane then got on the plane. The plane takes off at 21:30.

The pilot informs us that there is a good tail wind that will speed up the journey. I just think he'll have to go a lot faster to get to Auckland 12 hours ago. It's 21:45

Written 27th June 2012
The plane lands at 02:25 (New Zealand time) but after collecting my bags and getting a shuttle bus to the nearby Formulae 1 Hotel, it's now 03:30, 12 hours later than expected and 17 hours after I checked in at Melbourne I'm in Auckland, in a hotel, that cost me $79, the money over here looks weird and it's windy outside. Now I'm going to sleep, but tomorrow I will get that $79 back and not in 'refreshment vouchers'.

They're Only Virgin If You Exclude All The Buggering

Last night I went to Lentils, for the last time ever,

This place has saved me a few times in the past couple of months

It's a community restaurant, serving up some really nice vegetarian stuff that isn't just nut roasts and Quorn (probably because I haven't seen Quorn over here) and the best part is you pay 'what you can afford', which is whatever silver coins I have in my wallet. It was delicious, then an early night for I had to get the airport shuttle to Melbourne's International terminal at 6:45am.

I arrived at the airport around 8am, went to check in and my flight was cancelled...
...
...
...
What? Dammit Virgin Australia! I expressed my concerns with their company name on Facebook (as is customary these days)

 

I will not apologise for the swearing as it was a crucial element in the joke, apart from Virgin airlines who are clearly the biggest joke of all!

The staff are nice to look at though, so that's something... and that's not just my opinion.

So now I'm at Melbourne Airport's domestic terminal, rather than the international one, waiting until 2pm to fly NORTH before swapping to Brisbane's international terminal and flying SOUTH to Auckland, New Zealand. 

None of these people have ever seen an atlas.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to twiddle my thumbs for four hours in a cafe that is playing awful house remixes of awful songs that are always on the awful radio over here!

So this, only with more 'Boomtisboomtisboomtisboomtis IF LOOKS COULD KIIIIILLL...'

A New Adventure Dawns

I have applied for my visa to enter New Zealand on a working holiday! Hooray! Also, welcome to my new blog! For the story so far head to my Australian travel blog. Basically, due to second year visa trouble, I am heading from Melbourne Australia to Auckland New Zealand next week, so be sure to subscribe to this blog if you want to know what I'm getting up to over in kiwi land.

Stay cool, lads and lasses!