The land of the white clouds - Part I

Saturday, 4 April 2009

We arrived in Auckland (city of sails) close to dusk. Going through the NZ custom was a breeze. So much so, Whitney totally missed the luggage carousel and went straight out of customs without her luggage even though she had declared items. Meanwhile, D and I were waiting for her at the luggage carousel wondering where she was. We eventually received a call from her and figured out what had happened.

We picked up our hired car and drove towards the city to check in. The NZ air was so clean and fresh such that we could smell gorgeous aroma from restaurants a mile away. It made our stomach rumble. The aroma became stronger and stronger until we couldn't stand it any more. We parked the car, found a restaurant and ordered dinner. We weren't quite sure if it was because of hunger or whether it was a combination of Chinese dishes that we have never had before... but it was one of the best meals we had during the trip.













Monday, 6 April 2009

Bay of Islands: many people had told us that this was place we should not miss, and sure it was. D had organised a 3-hour cruise around the islands so we can see the beauty of the islands. It all started wonderfully, we saw many dolphins and swimmers who were playing with the dolphins in the bay.



It was straight after this that both D and Whitney got extremely sea sick. They were so sick that they sat at the bottom deck of the boat and had their heads down for most of the cruise. I have to say I did feel very sorry for them, they were both white as ghosts. Having said this, I think it was one of the most memorable days for them, all for the wrong reasons. What I did do for them is take pictures of the scenery they have missed.




D was well enough by the end of the day to capture a beautiful sunset from the motel we stayed in. Below is my version of the pretty sunset. There is also a shot here of an interesting feature at the entrance of this motel. The inscriptions on the tomb says "the last guest who complained". We saw this on the night we arrived in the dark with the car headlight shining on it, you could probably imagine the shock we had at first...