(this happened on) Monday 25th May 2009

The Gap Year Gang Hop Skip and Jump To New Zealand

Sydney from the Airport

Well today it was our turn to up camp and flee Australia.  It’s half way day, we are six months down and today we leave Australia.

We are up early and we have a shuttle bus at 8:50am to the International Terminal. We get ourselves to the correct desk and check in. A lovely young lady at the Qantas desk does all the necessary. We went through no huge queues so low stress. We had a bite to eat and wandered the shops until we could board our plane.

Our three months in Australia has been an amazing mixture, just like Australia itself. We spent many weeks driving nondescript roads and driving through nondescript towns it could be soul destroying, much of the landscape is not worth looking out of the window for, But…..

When you hit the good bits not much else can beat it. A shout out to Agnes Water and the Town of 1770, Airlie Beach, The Whitsundays, Ulladulla and especially Sydney, which was by far my favourite Australian city, quite beautiful and easy to get around and easily up there with my other favorite cities world wide.

I enjoyed watching AFL and have now adopted the Hawthorne Hawks as my team (that’s like breaking a mirror, they will have to now endure at least seven years bad luck!)

Just as I was boarding the flight, literally on the walkway to the plane I got a Voice Message from Budget asking me to contact them as I had not yet returned the car. You see that’s what happens when companies staff get lazy, the bloody women yesterday literally did not look at me as she took the keys and was not interested in checking the car over, I did not need this shit. I called from the plane and the woman who answered the phone repeated that I had not returned the car, I told her I had and she said ‘OK’ and that was that (I hope), not impressed.

So for fellow travelers let me give you a quick recap on visiting Australia.

Don’t waste all your time driving around the country, it’s bloody boring, lots of one horse towns that close at 5:00pm without even a decent food option.  If you can fly from one major area to the other, or get on a train or bus or coach, let somebody else take the load the distances are massive with little to see all day long.

Maximise your time at the main areas, the Cities and the main holiday areas, take it from me the reason Airlie Beach is so busy is because it is quite stunning, it’s in a great position and the local business population cater for all the holiday makers, that one little town has more and better food and entertainment options than 90% of the country.

The cities are fine, Sydney first, Melbourne and Adelaide in that order, I was not keen on Brisbane but that could have been down to the fact it pretty well rained the whole time we were there.

The beaches can be stunning but not necessarily the most well known ones, Green Patch Beach remains the finest beach i have ever been on and it was deserted.

Food wise, Aussies do superb BBQ and Steak style food, places like SSS, Hogs Breath take some beating, if that’s your food of choice.

I am sure I would have enjoyed Australia much more if I just kept to the main centers, sadly too many miles at the pathetically slow speeds the Australian police deem necessary to avoid hitting the car that may come your way sometime in the next hour and too many f**king dull, dull towns full BottleO’s and not much else.

Anyway time to fly…………….

Our flight to Auckland Airport was around three hours and was a simple hop skip and jump.

At the airport we found a shuttle service and headed off to our base for the next three nights the CityLife Hotel on Queens Street.

We spent a bit more than our usual for this place but were rewarded with a very comfortable two bedroom suite. Sofia was over the moon with the comfortable bed.

We all went out for a walk around, the hotel is in a great position, Queens Street seems to be a major shopping street and it’s also only a short walk away from the SkyCity Tower.

The tower is a stunning sight, I do think though that there is some cheating here, sure it’s very high, but so much of that height seems to be the obligatory additional communications masts rather than actual physical tower.

Sasha and I think it feels just like home here, so English and temperatures to match and already I feel happier than I did in Australia.

We found a restaurant called Patio Takapuna Steak House which was on the first floor of the Queens Arcade. My Steak was very nice and Sofia said her lamb shanks were immense.

We walked all the way up the road and then back to the hotel. We checked out the swimming pool and the gym and then Sofia headed straight for the bath and She was not going to be getting out in a hurry.

It was time for bed, except I started watching TV, I have to say the NZ TV is way beyond the Aussie stuff, it’s much more grown up and therefore more watchable.