...I managed to locate a place in an area called Mount Albert for $130 a week all in with internet. It is basically shared accomodation, but pretty good one and out of the ribs of the city with all the shops etc buses closeby. There is a landlady who is here all the time and genuinely seems a good person and that's what matters with these type of setups. OK, one thing, I left a jar of coffee out in the kitchen and within 3 hours it was nicked, but you know the score with these setups... It bears no reflection on the establishment, just that sometimes you'll get tarry fingered people. If only they knew that the jar was laced with a little something, i guess they may stop drinking my coffee in future, but who knows, lol ;)

Right then, after a night spent in that damn Quest apartment, I managed to score this decent accomodation using a website called wotif.com , basically they are like places that have been discounted for some reason or other and you may find a diamond like I did... This tower block is actually student accomodation for the Auckland uni students etc and I got a rate of $35 a night, which is peanuts compared to the night before of $150 in that crappy Quest apartments. Anyways, the thing about the student accomodation on Symonds Street is that there were no cons regarding about what it was etc. When I got there I bought a Cat 5 cable from the guy at reception and threw him $10 for 1gig of net. The rooms was good and had all the stuff. Everything you needed. Cooker, Microwave, bed (I slept in my coat and wasn't cold), fridge, shower, the works. Ok it wasn't exactly paradise, but the rate was good and the atmosphere in the building overall was pleasant. If you wanted to smoke, there was an official area outside, so all in all, you really couldn't grumble. There was a corner shop nearby, so getting grub wasn't a hassle neither. Now, one thing, basically the entire place was run and filled with Chinese people. I found that, there was a very easy going and pleasant vibe to this accomodation and would reccomend it highly compared to shared rooms in backpackers with old drunks or nutters. After a little negotiation, the manager was prepared to lease me a good room for $185 a week all in, and that is definatly a great deal, to be right in the guts of Auckland at that price, and pretty well looked after is diamond, but...

Listen, fool. Years ago, some guy had this idea about flying. Basically, it never got off the ground, ahahaha. Half a century passed and then, then the technology changed, and now it is real. $35K USD get you a Gen-4. Ok, it's not new, I think it came out around 2006, but sometimes, it's better to let technology like this "settle" for a few years if you know what i mean... I'm guessing, these are being bought now. My point was though, it has been done before, but not on a commercial level, so the original guys idea, eventually did take shape and in a much better way than he could have delivered at that point in time. Strange, but true :)
Surely you'll want to check their site. http://www.gen-corp.jp/ Of course, you might like to take a little course in mandarin before attempting to decipher this incredible inventions small print, but you'll get the idea.

Now something I love when it comes to food is Avacados. Just as I left Australia, I was kicking myself as it was coming to their summer where you can get them for basically nothing, but I hear you can get these quite good prices in NZ too, so i'm ready, fill me. The Avacado is a buttery type thing inside and is actually a fruit, but you could have fooled me. Anyways, the picture below with the plane is the first shimpent of airfreighted Avacados from the USA to Canada, prolly happened light-years ago, but there you go.

At this point, thought i'd just drop a shot of what you see when you fly a cessna. This plane is flying as you can see, but there are other things you can do, like landing, or fiddling with the buttons, it's good.

So yall, I was just doing what a ravy&piggy guy does and checking wiki out. This Auckland, well it has history too of course. Now, as it happens, the place was named after the baron called William Eden. Auckland was actually a younger son or some shit, cut to the chase, the guy was a UK dude. Anyways, if you look deeply at it, you'll see that there is a place called mount Eden which is named after this Eden family, ironically that's where i'm headed to soon, to check out a decent cheap pad. Bet Eden, never had to bother with backpakers and tourist visas when he was here. Ach... Suggest fill brain at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Eden,_1st_Baron_Auckland

Here is the beach. It is pretty clean. There isn't really sand though, sort of rough stone, but in some ways it's good because sand always buggers up your toes.