I was awoken this morning at first by my room mates alarm going off, which she didn't hear at first, shortly followed my phone playing the skype call ringtone! After getting the room to myself eventually I skyped back and after tears were shed about the harsh reality that going to university will probably involve me leaving home, I had the whole morning to myself. The fact I had woken up so early with a departure not until gone 10 meant it was completely unnecessary to have awoken so early!
Due to the fact I had purchased WiFi yesterday I ended up spending the morning online. When finally getting to the 10am check out time which as always is the time you must check out by or risk losing your key deposit, I headed outside to wait for my bus. The pick up time was only vague this morning as Rotorua is just a pick up going north from Taupo en route to Auckland. I certainly won't miss the sulphurous smell round Rotorua which was particularly eggy this morning. I ended up having to breath this in until gone half 10 in the end which is when the bus arrived.
With another cruisey drive planned for the day, our first stop of the day was Matamata for a lunch stop. Whilst here our driver pointed out a cheap cafe which certainly was cheap getting a cheese and onion toastie with a jam filled chocolate dipped shortbread thing for lunch. Matamata is more commonly known as the gateway to Hobbiton, somewhere I passed going south. Within the town there were remnants of this connection including the i site which was built like one of the houses from lord of the rings. There was even a statue of gollum inside. Remember I have watched a film now after my rained out days in Kaikoura!
After around half an hour here which was funnily enough in the rain which had turned from drizzle on arrival to heavy rain when leaving, we continued straight on into Auckland. The city of Auckland is actually double the size of London in terms of land area, although I wouldn't class the countryside we were passing through as city. Before long we came into more built up areas although there were traffic jams going in, something our driver said was common. To be honest our driver wasn't really selling the city to us describing it as an accident waiting to happen with clueless migrants living inside it. I thought this was pretty harsh to be fair.
By around 3 we made it into the city and after checking into the hostel I went straight out to the sta to sort out my problems with the Fiji trip. Despite being unable to directly help me as the uk database is not linked to the nz one, they were helpful in giving me advice everything. Whilst here I also booked my hostel in LA. I was going to split my four nights here between Hollywood and the beach, although they made the valid point that I would lose a day transferring between hostels and day trips from one base is more time effective. I am therefore staying in Santa Monica when I go to LA now.
When getting everything sorted I headed through the city back to the hostel via burger king for dinner. Based around a single street with lots of side streets, I took a slow walk down basically going window shopping through the modern shopping area. When returning to the hostel I basically relaxed, although I did spend time planning geocaches for my day tomorrow. Auckland is built around and probably on volcanoes, with an eruption likely to happen in the future. I am visiting one of these tomorrow!
With two full days planned round Auckland I wasn't too fussed about rushing round and exploring Auckland today, instead spending my evening with a visit to the local supermarket, followed by a return to the hostel. Once again I had a half empty room with just me and Dutch girl having the room to ourselves. She was just starting her kiwi experience trip so I advised her on where to stay longer! I then opted for an early night.
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