Working hard in NZ

My sister KD and I recently (like last week) were lucky enough to spend a week in New Zealand on a working holiday. (alright, maybe more emphasis on the holiday rather than the working)

KD’s 50th birthday fell on the day we were leaving and so we met in Sydney at what we ‘thought’ would be a nice hotel near the airport as we had an early flight the next morning. On first sight of the hotel all appeared quite fine…aghhhh…looks are deceiving!

We rolled our hefty suitcases across the carpark to the foyer of the building where our room was located. As soon as we entered the building there was a stench of rotting wet carpet (which was kinda strange since the floor was infact bare of carpet and was cracked concrete under foot!)

On we trudged to the elevator and up to the 4th floor, discussing on the way that they may have experienced flooding and had to remove the wet carpet…yeah right.. the floods must have come all the way up to the 4th floor cause there was no carpet there either…just that bare cracking concrete and that disgusting smell!

By this stage of course we were beginning to wonder what we were in for…

The room itself wasn’t that bad (…well it was at least clean and didnt smell) there was a crack in the wall where I could almost see through to the next room, the smallest TV we’d ever seen, an open cupboard thingy over the tea/coffee making facilities with one coat hanger (presumably the ‘wardrobe’) and the bathroom…OMG! although it was clean we nearly didnt fit in there. You needed to sit on the toilet to wash your hands in the tiny basin and the shower recess was very ’snug’ to say the least! But, we laughed it off…and after a few birthday bourbons we really didnt care!

Next day we flew into Auckland. On the bus ride from the airport into the city (of which took about 90 minutes in the busy Auckland peak hour traffic - distance traveled approx 20km ) the scenery reminded me of Melbourne (Australia) nothing special really.

The sky bus dropped us at the front door of our next hotel from hell. The stairs from the street to the reception area were marble and the foyer had beautiful etched mirrors and cathedral ceiling. Apart from nearly causing ourselves serious injury lugging our suitcases up the stairs…we figured we were in for a decent nights sleep. But once past the foyer the place lost its beauty. Ragged carpets and incredibly aged decor was only the beginning!

We rode the jerky elevator to the 7th floor…room with a view? Not likely…this room was that small that you had to leave the room to change your mind! No where to put our bulging suitcases…no airconditioning and beds like trampolines. But…it was clean. The bathroom although old, was a reasonable size and apart from the shower head only reaching my belly button wasnt too bad. But, we laughed it off…and after a few margaritas at the local Mexican restaurant we really didnt care!

We hired a car and left Auckland heading north to Kerikeri (Bay of Islands) where we were to stay for the week with our great friend Maureen from FeelingFlirty.com What a relief when we arrived there to a beautiful house not only on the outside but definitely on the inside too and how’s this view?

We spent the week working hard…yep, we worked hard at eating (Maureen is the most amazing chef!), sight seeing and of course we did discuss work at least once that I remember.

I’ll post more pics later and continue our journey of New Zealand.