Tuesday, 22nd January
Today we left our hotel in Sydney at 6.00am to go to the airport. It was good that left that early as our flight was 9.30am. However, I am telling Alison that she is not alone with having problems with electronic flight tickets. When we got to the airport and tried to check in they said that the ticket Thomas Cook had given us from Sydney to New Zealand wasn’t a ticket at all and that we would have to buy a new one. The girl was quite facetious. However she did go and see her boss who was a little more helpful and said that if we paid A$75 each they would be able to reissue a ticket for each of us. It was quite a scary moment. So we paid the A$150 (about £75) and got our tickets and managed to make the flight, which was then delayed by about 45 minutes with technical problems. Another scary moment. Although a pleasant enough flight it was not quite the same as flying club class with British Airways. However, we survived the experience and arrived in a sunny and rather hot Auckland at about 3.15pm.
We finally got to the hotel about 5.00pm and just had time for a shower and change before we had our New Zealand tour meeting at 6.00pm and met our fellow travellers – a mixed bag of British, Austrian, Australian, Asians all of similar age to us, spending their children’s inheritence.
Tomorrow we are up at 5.45am to have an early breakfast and be on the road to Rotorua and Waitoma Caves in our luxury coach by 7.30am!!!! Geoff says he thought we were supposed to be on a relaxing holiday!!!
Wednesday, 23rd January
Today we had a very early start up at 5.45am on the road at 7.30am for an Auckland City Sights Tour then we drove along New Zealand’s longest river – the Waikato – to the Waitomo Caves, where we say an amazing underground glow worm grotto by boat and walked through limestone caves with stalactites and stalagmites (sorry about splelling) this was so beautiful. The coach then drove for a few hours ending up in Rotorua (and our hotel for 2 nights). This is Maori country and the geothermal hot spots of New Zealand. The smell of sulphur in the air is quite strong at times. We had 1 hour to wash and change before we went off for a 3 hour Maori Hangi feast and entertainment.
Thursday, 24th January
Today we had a lie in – didn’t have to get up until 7.00am (WOW). We drove down to the lake and boarded the historic paddle steamer, the Lakeland Queen for a one hour breakfast trip round the lake. We then went to the Agrodome Sheep Shearing Show and learnt about the different breeds of sheep in New Zealand – this was all very entertaining (Alison please note the sheep were treated very well and seemed to enjoy it as much as we did). Then it was off again to the Whakarewarewa thermal reserve to see a spectacular geyser, mud pools and a KIWI. We did all this before lunch, but we are pleased to say we had the afternoon off in which to explore the town (Doreen had some retail therapy and Geoffrey went exploring around the edge of the lake. We are now off to town for something to eat, then an early night ready for our early 5.45am call, to start our journey to Wellington, the capital.
Today we left our hotel in Sydney at 6.00am to go to the airport. It was good that left that early as our flight was 9.30am. However, I am telling Alison that she is not alone with having problems with electronic flight tickets. When we got to the airport and tried to check in they said that the ticket Thomas Cook had given us from Sydney to New Zealand wasn’t a ticket at all and that we would have to buy a new one. The girl was quite facetious. However she did go and see her boss who was a little more helpful and said that if we paid A$75 each they would be able to reissue a ticket for each of us. It was quite a scary moment. So we paid the A$150 (about £75) and got our tickets and managed to make the flight, which was then delayed by about 45 minutes with technical problems. Another scary moment. Although a pleasant enough flight it was not quite the same as flying club class with British Airways. However, we survived the experience and arrived in a sunny and rather hot Auckland at about 3.15pm.
We finally got to the hotel about 5.00pm and just had time for a shower and change before we had our New Zealand tour meeting at 6.00pm and met our fellow travellers – a mixed bag of British, Austrian, Australian, Asians all of similar age to us, spending their children’s inheritence.
Tomorrow we are up at 5.45am to have an early breakfast and be on the road to Rotorua and Waitoma Caves in our luxury coach by 7.30am!!!! Geoff says he thought we were supposed to be on a relaxing holiday!!!
Wednesday, 23rd January
Today we had a very early start up at 5.45am on the road at 7.30am for an Auckland City Sights Tour then we drove along New Zealand’s longest river – the Waikato – to the Waitomo Caves, where we say an amazing underground glow worm grotto by boat and walked through limestone caves with stalactites and stalagmites (sorry about splelling) this was so beautiful. The coach then drove for a few hours ending up in Rotorua (and our hotel for 2 nights). This is Maori country and the geothermal hot spots of New Zealand. The smell of sulphur in the air is quite strong at times. We had 1 hour to wash and change before we went off for a 3 hour Maori Hangi feast and entertainment.
Thursday, 24th January
Today we had a lie in – didn’t have to get up until 7.00am (WOW). We drove down to the lake and boarded the historic paddle steamer, the Lakeland Queen for a one hour breakfast trip round the lake. We then went to the Agrodome Sheep Shearing Show and learnt about the different breeds of sheep in New Zealand – this was all very entertaining (Alison please note the sheep were treated very well and seemed to enjoy it as much as we did). Then it was off again to the Whakarewarewa thermal reserve to see a spectacular geyser, mud pools and a KIWI. We did all this before lunch, but we are pleased to say we had the afternoon off in which to explore the town (Doreen had some retail therapy and Geoffrey went exploring around the edge of the lake. We are now off to town for something to eat, then an early night ready for our early 5.45am call, to start our journey to Wellington, the capital.
1 comment:
Glad to see the trip is going well so far. "spending their children's inheritance". Hilarious! Keep spending!
I'll keep your seat warm on Tuesday. Take care.
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