We played with the rubber ducky in the Auckland harbour, had a beer at a cowboy bar. We enjoyed the views from the Auckland harbour and the celebrations for the year of the rabbit. Climbing Rangitoto volcano in the bay of Auckland was the highlight, seeing the wildlife that lives on the volcano and crawling through the lava caves.

Day 154 (02/02/11) Dentist

My tooth has been hurting for the last few days, so today I went to the dentist. I am fine and need to go for a follow up consultation next week. The dentist was nice and friendly and I got a discount because I am a student and I paid on the same day, so that works out well, as dentists are not the cheapest places to visit.

After the stress of the dentist the only logical things to do was walk down to the viaduct and have a beer in a cowboy bar watching the sail boats.

Day 155 (03/02/11) Happy Year of the Rabbit

Today it is the start of the Chinese New Year. There are a lot of activities going on to celibate the New Year. We were surprised as nothing happened for Australia day we did not except anything to happen.

At sunset we walked down to the harbour and watched the sky turn different colours of pink and the boats sail back into the harbour for the night.

On our way home we bumped into some people we met at the party last Friday, and realised how small Auckland is. We had a beer with them at an Irish pub before continuing on home.

Day 156 (04/02/11) Door to door sales (or not)

Today I had another interview with a recruitment company; I am starting to get annoyed with the ones I have seen here in Auckland, as they are always trying to push me into taking jobs that don’t interest me. This once was for door to door sales, which is something I don’t want to do.

In the evening we went hunting for some food, when we found a show going on for the Chinese New Year. It was a welcomed surprise.

Day 157 (05/02/11) Blogging

Spent the day improving our blog, I am really enjoying working on it now that we have internet connection. In the afternoon we went to see a movie as we had special tickets with our cinema cards. 127 hours, a very scary movie to watch while you are travelling around or doing extreme adventures.

We did some shopping and then headed home for a lovely home cooked meal.

Day 158 (06/02/11) Rangitoto

Volcano here we come! Our adventure of the day was to go to the island of Rangitoto, which is a volcanic island in the bay of Auckland. We hop on the ferry and after 25 minutes we have arrived to this volcano that last erupted 600 years ago. The whole island is covered in volcanic debris and you can clearly see the ‘lines’ that were formed by the lava when the volcano last erupted. We climbed to the summit to enjoy the stunning views. There is so much furan growing on the island it is quite incredible. We saw a few bird species that are endemic to the island. We explored caves in the dark with only our flash light to guide us.

Sadly I slipped while climbing over some rocks and bashed myself up pretty bad, so we can home an hour sooner than we had planned. I also have a ear infection which doesn’t make me feel good at all and I feel like I need to climb in to bed and sleep.

Day 159 (07/02/11) Auckland Hospital

Sadly today I don’t have anything fun or nice to write about, it seems that I caught an ear infection somewhere and feel really terrible. We went to the hospital to see a doctor because the pain my ear was killing me and just as we were being redirected to another clinic, I fainted so I spent the next 3 hours under observation. When I was finally released I went back home and slept and hid in bed all day long.

Day 160 (08/02/11) Ear Doctor

I did not feel better today. The pain was still making me feel sick, weak, and almost making me go crazy. I went to see an ear doctor that cleaned my ears with a little suction tube and then went back home. Finally the pain killers and antibiotics were taking effect and the pain started to go down. Back to sleep.