Auckland and Beyond

Ok. So firstly, sorry for not writing anything for ages.... no excuse really. 

  Secondly, as not everyone has joined Google+ I decided to sell my soul to Google even more and use their blog and post the link on both sites to keep everyone happy. 

So, what have I been doing? 

 Until five days ago the answer to that question is living in Auckland, New Zealand's largest city by quite a way (but not the capital, that's Wellington). Boring! Dull! Rubbish some people have cried. While that's been true at points, it's also been very false. I've never lived in a city before, and with only 1.5 million people, Auckland seemed like a good place to give it a try and tick it off the bucket list. 

 Conclusion? I still don't want to live in a city. Despite the ease of being able to get anything I want at almost anytime, lots of public transport (sometimes even reliable), and good access to gigs and cultural stuff, I am definately a country boy/town boy at best. But not a townie. That's just silly.

Sky Tower at night

 I've met some amazing people who have become amazing friends as well, and of course some idiots. I spent alot of time getting out of the rat race with people, going to see waterfalls and beaches and generally having a good time. For all of those who have been through Auckland and just write it off as boring with nothing to do after just two days, I say try harder next time! See these things within about 45 mins to an hour of Auckland CBD:

Can't remember the name!

Lion Rock at Piha (black sand) beach

And so now I've left Auckland. This was sad to leave all the people I've met, but also good as I can now satisfy my itchy feet that have building for months. Routine = meh. 

 To help my travels around the country I bought a package with the Stray Bus. It's a hop on hop off tour bus that goes around some of the major sights in New Zealand, and some of the lesser known and virtually unknown. If I just did every single night on the bus, I would have finished the tour in about 17 days. I want (and am able) to take about 5 months with it though. I won't go through the full description now, but will tell you a bit about each after I've done them. 

Day one: Auckland to Raglan

 Getting up at 6 when I'm no longer working seemed criminal! Most of the buses leave very early (I started to regret taking it when I realised this), but this means you get to the places in plenty of time to do activities (either paid or free) when you get there. 

 So on day one we (a bus of about 40 people; about a quater of those German!) headed south to Hamilton and then West to a little town called Raglan. Raglan is famous for it's surfing as it has a left hand brake. I'll pretend I know what that is. The town it's self is very small but it's in a nice remote location (but still full of surf shops). The hostel was about 15 mins south of the town, closer to the actual surf beaches. 

 I didn't explore the beaches as it was raining on and off, but I did go for an hour bush walk with some of the other guys on the bus, on a track around the hostel. This was suprisingly like some of the bush walks I'd done around Auckland! It's a bit like Jurassic Park in places here, the flora and fauna of palm trees, ferns and big green and brown plants keeping me hoping that I'll see a dinosaur soon.

View from my hostel room. See what I mean about the dinosaurs?

So cue first night of getting to know people, forgetting names and asking the same sort of questions overand over (Where you from? Been over here long? Come over from Australia?), but I did discover I was a bit of an oddity (quiet!) in the fact I'm the only one (of that bus at least) who has been over here for so long before going on the tour. Most people have been in the country a week at most before shooting off on the tour. 

And just to prove that I am here I'll give you the rare treat of myself in a photo:

Working hard as always