The Quest for Capybara

Having succesfully negotiated our way through the harsh climate and language difficulties of Sydney, we headed off to the land of sheep. Auckland was the destination, and a fine one at that.

The flight was uneventful, Mamma Mia was the movie which I chose not to partake of for obvious reasons. Arriving in Auckland, we were immediately inundated with questions about whether we were here for the Def Leppard concert. Having been unprepared for such questions we replied that we were not here for the concert. Thereafter we were noticeably shunned by all Aucklanders as if the word had passed around town.

Our time in Auckland was spent wandering around on foot between the quaint Parnell area and the inner city. The weather was good to start with, but turned progressively worse towards the end of our stay .. perhaps the NZ Gods' reaction to our Def Leppard shun.

Highlights of our stay included a trip to Rangitoto Island, which was born from a volcanic eruption about 600 years ago. Quiet interesting really, a good little hike up to the summit and also some interesting caves to explore should you be that way inclined .. although I would recommend you take a slightly better torch than we did. Also provided some quality views of central Auckland.

We also managed to get along to Minus 5, the ice bar which was started in Auckland and is spreading around the world. We had a particularly chatty barman, Tim, good bloke. Another one of those weird half Pom half Kiwi guys. Better bloke than the other half Kiwi half Poms I know. We were also priviledged to find out that little Johnny Howard has taken up a new role selling property in Auckland. How the mighty have fallen.

Thats about all there was for Auckland. A couple of quick facts before we go:

- Auckland seems to have far better sushi than Melbourne, which sent V into something of a lather and we had Sushi for dinner the first two nights.

-The average Auckland female is 5 foot 2, about 20 kilos overweight and looks like they have been struck by a truck repeatedly. Naturally some exceptions apply and luckily for Jesse this does not apply to all of NZ.

So we are currently in Santiago Chile, but I will write about that some other time.

Stay cool and in the words of little Johnny Howard "There´s no way thats a fish. What did you say, the pope said it was? Did George W say it was as well? That is definitely a fish then."

T & V