So far we’ve slept a lot, drank a lot, and ate fish & chips at the oldest pub in Auckland… And bought an iPad…
Day one in Orc-land.. I don’t remember too much about arriving. Me brain was a mush and it felt like someone had stuck some Rohypnol in that Lamb Curry. And so blurry eyed and greasy haired we stumbled our way through BioSecurity being meticulously checked, not for explosives and red or blue wires, but instead we were frisked and inspected for terrifying things such as soil and ham sandwiches… I have my suspicions I may have hallucinated the whole thing…
And when I’d started to take in the reality that we were suddenly revealed to be on the other side of planet earth, I opened the curtains of the hotel room to be confronted by an Independence Day style space ship casually parked up in the middle of town… No one seemed to be batting an eyelid, and so I returned to my previous theory of sleep deprivation, ignored the impending alien invasion and collapsed into a comfortable coma on the bed.
Note to self: Never fall asleep to a background movie of 28 weeks later, if you’ve gone without sleep for more than a day. It’s a sure fire way of vividly experiencing being eaten alive by your co-workers and friends. You won’t know what the f**** going on when you wake up.
Happy to see breakfasts are the same over here :D
Introducing our new mate Romeo. So named apparently as he roamed over one day and decided to stay, rather like the littlest hobo ( and a little like us ) :) Rest day today - yeeha! The best kind if day… Amazing mini apartment here at BayLinks Motel. And feels all the more homely with a free friendly cat to play with. A furry friend never goes a miss after a hard day.
It was a 4 mile round trip to the only restaurant in town.. But worth the effort because it was also the only bar in town! Had to go for a seaside themed celebratory dinner this time. Bit too deep fried for my liking, but tasted better than the 
This bad boy is topping the breakfast charts at the moment. Sausage is still a bit suspect though.
The breakfast chart has been the hottest debated topic so far on this holiday, sadly we’ve still yet to have an evening meal really worthy of note. The Fishbone Grill pictured has just secured it’s place right at the top, not only for serving up the first proper sausage, but also for the sauce. Sauce with your breakfast seems strangely lacking over here, of both the red and brown variety. Fishbone however compliment the fry up with a lovely tomato relish and a non too picturesque, but damn tasty mushroom sauce. A wonder to behold, this is probably the best breakfast I’ve ever had! Should be though, it cost enough, $18 and that doesn’t include the coffee..
I had no expectations about Kerikeri but it turned out to have some lovely spots by the river that remind me a little of a tropical Helford ( a beautiful river village near Falmouth in Cornwall ). I have no idea at this point how old New Zealand is but I was surprised that these original houses weren’t a little older. I’m not really very historically aware yet but im looking forward to absorbing lots of Kiwi knowledge over the next 6 months :)
Can’t remember the name of the restaurant, but the burger was a Surfer Dude! It certainly filled a lunchtime hole, couldn’t even finish all my chips.
