Hi to all,
So as i previously said on my last post, i got a relocation deal on a car, tickets to the Big Day Out in Auckland, my license translated, my boss's permission to take four days off and my plane ticket back home!
This was by far one of the best experiences of my life, what a great way to see a country like New Zealand, I've always been a sucker for Road Trips and this one was an opportunity i could not miss.
Wednesday early morning i woke up, got on the rental car, picked up my friend Robin, and started the first part of the trip from Christchurch to Auckland, which by the way it was not only 600km but over a 1000km instead. From Christchurch to Picton were 344 km, which most people told me it would take me about 4 maybe even 5 hours to do so, only that i made it in less than 4, we were so ahead of scheduelle by the time we got to Blenheim, which is on the Marlborough region the most famous wine region of NZ, that we picked one winery to stop by and do some tasting, we tasted about 12 wines, but in the actual tasting way, which means spitting the wine instead of drinking it. The Gewürztraminer we tried appeal so much to me that we bought a bottle, and Sue the lady that was serving us, made it 7 NZD$ cheaper which was a pretty good deal hehe.
From the winery to the ferry was only about half an hour. Once on board it felt a bit weird to see the familiar emergency signs, the very same which i lived by on ships for 6 years, a lot of the experience on the ferry reminded me of my "ship's life", and for that the ride was quite fun. The crossing from the south to the north island of NZ takes about 3 hours, and it sets from Picton to finish in Wellington the capital and base of operations for one of the most amazing directors of all times Peter Jackson (I'm a huge fan of Lord of the Rings)
Once we arrived in Wellington we went straight to the Weta Cave (PJ's workshop), took heaps of pics, and headed for the Backpackers we had booked. We got there dropped our bags in the room and left for a walk along the Harbor, Wellington seems a very nice place and i definitely have to stop by there with more time. After some roaming around we went to Cuba st, the main street for good and best bar and restaurants, set down at a nice place for some really good pizza and a Italian Sangiovese wine, got back to the Backpacker and went to bed.
Next morning we woke finished packing and left the backpacker to find out we had a Flat tire, which cost us extra time in the city and 160 bucks for the new tire, which reminds me to inform you that always plan for more money than what u think u'll be spending.
We were on the road by noon, and decided to follow the advice from some people and take the SH 32 and go around the Tongariro national park(where Mordor from LOTR was shot) and the great lake Taupo, beautiful scenery folks NZ is an amazing country for a Road trip.
Within 6 hours and quite a few K's of driving done, we were checking on the map to figure where was the Backpacker we had booked for Hamilton, only to find out that it would deviate us for a good few K's, so instead we decided to call the backpacker in Auckland to see if they would have a spare room for the nite before the one we had booked and fortunately they did, so we kept on the road and around 10 in the evening of the day before the BDO we were in Auckland.
Met up some great people there and later met up with a friend, Michael who's been living in Auckland for the past couple of months, so gave a quick nite tour around the city up till 2 am when we got back and went to bed.
Continues below......
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