oh I do like to be beside the seaside

Arrived in Auckland safe and sound and sleepy. Auckland airport is nice! Just the right size, and then stepping outside was wierd because I remember it from all the years ago. Got the express bus easy peasy, was actually asked for advice from 2 other travellers on what bus they should get, I gave them answers, but do I look like a wealth of information or something? And do people have no common sense at all? Anyway, the drive into Auckland was nice, I felt safe and comfortable which is not something I've felt when travelling into the unknown. So once arrived at the hostel all I wanted to do was check into my room and fall fast asleep because by that point I'd only slept 2 hours out of 24. But the room wasn't ready and I couldn't check in until 1pm!! So put my luggage in storage and had to while my hours away somewhere. I was starving and saw a Wendys Burger place (I keep walking past it now and thinking to myself, what was I thinking???) so went and had a chicken burger which was really satisfying. I then fell upon a Borders book store which looked tiny from the outside but opened up into this huge 4 storey store! So had a sit down in one section and read cover to cover firstly 'New New Zealand Houses' which consisted of architectural drawings and photos of very boring, dab modern architecture; all concrete and glass and corrogated iron whcih they seem to like over here. And then I found a Postsecret book - jackpot! So went through that too. Then wandered down to the travel section and had a flick through different European books as I think I'm coming home for April so I can do Europe. Yeah so by that point it was nearly 1 and I went back to the hostel and got into my uncleaned room. I was getting really grumpy and annoyed by this point but dumped my stuff and went out to a cafe round the corner (they have so many nice cafes around here, much fewer Starbucks, and yeah Matthew I felt guilty about not going to nice cafes and feeding the Starbucks piggybank in N.Y but I think they have shut down almost every coffee house because I could find hardly any) and had chocolate cake and pot of tea. Also went up to the bus station which is below sky tower and booked my ticket to Hamilton for Friday. I remember the sky hotel too from when we stayed there. Finally by about 2.30 my room was ready and I went to sleep. Didn't do much in the evening when I woke up, just had a shower and watched a bit of TV.

Today I went to Auckland Art Gallery and saw really quite a good exhibition by Laurence Aberhart. Lots of silver gelatin prints which I loooove. They're so spooky and brooding and magical at the same time. Then took a wander down to the harbour and walked miles out of town in search of the luxury yachts, to no avail. But I did take some nice photos. AND I CAN UPLOAD THEM! Whoo! Gonna do that now, theres 529 so I don't think they're all gona go up, depends how longs its gona take me. Although the internet is blissfully cheap and fast here! I like Auckland though, and today it was sunny and its such a nice temperature; not sticky and humid but still warm and sunny. It smells nice too, of summer evenings.

much love
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx