Ants and Roundabouts....

Ok so I have left you in the dark for a few days so it is about time I let you know what I have been up to. Last you heard I had only just arrived on the Wednesday but since then I have done one or two awesome things...



I will start with Thursday. Still pretty tired and Jet lagged me and Jak got out of bed at around 8:30am had a shower (amazing I know) and got ready to get the bus in to town. The Bus was due at 10:01 but we had been warned that there is only about 1 every hour and they can be early. So we rushed out the door at quater too, started walking and as we neared the series of shops that idicated the bus stop was only round the corner a bus flew past us and we started running. Now I should explain, people don't do this in New Zealand, it is probably the most chilled out country in the world (except when it comes to seeds!). I mean don't quote me on this but I am pretty sure rushing anywhere is against the law. So once the bus cruised by the roundabout it then cruised by the bus stop..."Damn!" Was probably not the word that first came to mind but it serves its purpose in this case anyway, I thought we had pulled off our first jak and joe esque move of the journey so far and missed something at the very last second (even though we were 10 mins early!). Anyway with a glimour of hope left that this wasn't actually our bus we turned our run into a lazy walk and headed to the bus stop. We sat down and waited....10 minutes went by reasonably quickly.....AND.....The Bus showed up! Dead on time as well, it was clean, on time with plenty of room the only minor hitch was I wasn't too sure about how great the driver was. His habit of rolling the bus back everytime someone tried to get on was a little worrying although I am not sure wheather it was intentional or not after the 5th old lady had the fright of their life and the comedy value was pretty good I started to wonder if he could really be doing this by accident. Our first real look at Aukland was pretty cool, it's very different to London or Buenos Aires in that it doesn't hit you quite so hard with the hussel and bussel in the same way. We had a wander before we sat down in the cafe on the bottom floor of the sky tower had tea and wedges (best wedges ever btw) whilst making plans for the next week or so and writing the first of many post cards (if you haven't got yours in the next few days then it will either be in the post soon or I have just forgotten about you, kidding!).

We went up the sky tower a little bit later where we got an outstanding view of the city but before I dive into that I should probs give you an idea of what the sky tower actually is. It is basically one of your "pointless points" as I like to call them. It is the tallest tower in the southern hemeshere but it really has no purpose other than being a big flag pole like the eiffle tower etc. etc. The only very cool twist is that not only can you look off the top of it but you can jump off it! Looks pretty fun but it is also pretty pricey, gonna have to see if we have enough cash come the end of the trip. Once we got our heads out of the clouds (litteraly) we wondered around the rest of the city and picked up some thongs....


......oh yeah that's flip flops not underwear lol but they are a must have in this country if you want to fit in.

It is a cool place with some great sites, I will hit you with another update tomorrow with Friday and Saterdays events which will be worth the read (if I may say so myself lol).

Hope everyone is having as good a time back home as I am here!

Much love

Joe

x x x x x x

The pics will come trust me!