This morning we make good use of the wifi in our B and B and get some serious admin out of the way ahead of South America. A very productive morning of booking hotels in Cusco, Puno, Copacabana (Bolivia), two hotels in Iquitos (opting for a trendy non air conditioned one for a few days before we lose the will to live and head back to 'air con-isation' (it's 33 degrees and 90% humidity)). Also planned some day trips and sorted our plans for our self made wine tour in Auckland tomorrow due to the official tour being sold out. All in all very productive.
At about midday we say goodbye to Sasha and Trent who drop by to say farewell then hit the road back into Auckland to continue the admin day of dropping the car back and taking Mrs B to the dentist!!
It's actually been really nice having a car driving around. Makes me excited about our North America leg. Hopefully we will pimp it up more than a corolla there though.
We dump the stuff at our hotel and then I drop Nat at the dentist whilst I take the car back to the airport and get the bus back into town.
The hotel is brilliant and great value for £50 per night. Highly recommend. It's called the Quadrant. It's like an apartment and we have never been so happy to see one of these in our room with complimentary powder...
Genius touch for us travellers
We are going to miss radio Hauraki though which is an awesome rock channel playing great songs from all the bands we love and not just the usual ones either.
It's randomly been a very Christmassy day which is weird. The lady at the B and B played Christmas songs all morning, we were greeted to Christmas songs in the reception of our hotel and I then bump into this fella getting off the bus. A 7 storey Santa and his reindeers.
The weather in Auckland is dismal. It is amazing how the weather changes from driving for an hour south. It's tipping it down here and was glorious up north (don't usually say that!). The temperature has even dropped by 8 degrees to a chilly 21! ;-)
The weather soon clears though and turns into a gorgeous evening.
Nat got on OK at her tooth hurty appointment. Good job she went though as it was infected (with bad Aids I think). I was greeted to a numb faced dribbling wife when I arrived back - just the way I like her. Unfortunately she has non booze antibiotics for her trouble. Not great prep for our vineyard tour tomorrow!! Decision: delay starting the prescription until Tuesday!
That evening when Nat's pain killers kick in we have a walk around a very sleepy Auckland. It's a nice enough town but not much going on but to be fair it is Sunday. We head to the marina and end up eating in a place called Degree which turns out to be the equivalent of Aberdeen Angus on Argyle Street. One of those hugely popular places that deserve zero popularity for the quality of their food! It fills a gap and Nat appreciated the extra sloppiness of her pasta given her sore mouth.
Every big city we go to we (or I) have started to play 'Big Four Bingo'. It's a surprisingly reliable game to play in big cities and always had a clear winner. We usually do pretty well with the best building. PWC unfortunately win this round though. Until next time PWC!!
As we have a kitchen we try to buy cereal and breakfast for the morning. Other random fact is that cereal appears to be damn expensive here for some unknown reason. Cheaper to buy breakfast out!!
A bit more admin when we get back the we watch the Shining to scare us before bed.
Relieved that your mouth is a little better, Spratty! Auckland looks a lovely city....even intdrizzle!! Your chilly 21 degrees sounds very inviting....!! Drizzly and v cold here today, but the wind has abated, thankfully! The Y'ster and I have been watching the whole series of Homeland on DVD....have become geeky addicts! It is soooo addictive, and we're viewing for hours at a time.....tomorrow, after work, should have it finished, thank goodness!!! Anyway...it's a school night, so I'd better hit the sack, darlings! Night night! Love you v much xxxxxxxxxx
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