And so back to Auckland & beyond

As I said before, Robbie took me to the bus station after our lunch & soon I was in Auckland. After all the wide-openness of everywhere else I'd been ~ even Wellington, I didn't like it & couldn't wait to get out into the suburbs.

The bus took me out to Parnell & it was short walk down a residential street to the City Garden Lodge. I dumped my kit & went out to find where I'd eat & watch the game vs England. Parnell was one of those suburbs where just about all the shops etc were on the main route thru, so it didn't take me long.
Once back at the hostel, peeps were getting painted up for the game, & as you can see, it was a mixed group :-) You can also see I was still a redhead!

Most of the guys in the pic had tickets & set off for the stadium shortly after, & I went looking for dinner. I ended up with a takeaway, but also decided on a pub for later.

This is a pic of the hostel from the drive. The benches on the left were where the group pic was taken.

And this is the cute hostel cat. He looked like he had Seal-Point blood, & like a lot of Siamese, he was quite noisy :-)

Sadly Scotland lost very narrowly to England, & ended 3rd in their group. That meant they never made the 1/4s.
The pub was full of Kiwis supporting Scotland & they made me very welcome. There were a few other 'tourists' there, too, but only one Englishman. He must have felt very alone ;-p

As I had an early start for the airport, I didn't hang about after the game, & walked home having see Scotland play in all 4 of their group games ~ 3 live & 1 nearly live :-D


Next morning I was up before 6 & at the airport for my connection to Sydney by shortly before 8. This bloke fell asleep almost immediately ;-p, but was very friendly when he woke. His name was Rob, I think?

Coming into land I got a couple of photos of Australia!

Maybe I'll get more one day!?
I had a few hours to kill before my flight to Heathrow, so I wandered around the Duty Free, sampling the perfumes & hand cream, & treated myself to a couple of bottles. I remember one was a Shirraz Vioignier blend. No idea at this late stage what the other was.
Bizarrely, I still had the empty SV bottle until a couple of months ago. McPherson. I think?


So that was my 2011 Rugby World Cup visit to New Zealand. A few months after I got home I thought I should go back & visit the places I still haven't been to: the Northland and Bay of Islands, the East Coast of North Island, and the West Coast of South Island. Plus, I still hadn't swum with dolphins, I'd love to ride in more places, & I have a hankering to spend the night on Mt John & see the night sky, Southern Hemisphere style.
So, watch this space!
OAO (for now)