Not about the destination

23rd June 6:42, land in #Dunedin, bags out in say 10 minutes. I had booked a car, but i hadn't paid for it, so i was scouting the place looking for a better deal. Got a quote from 2 others that weren't any better than my original quote. One of the ladies that had helped me mentioned that the lady at #BudgetCarRental was a Saffa, not sure why i was so chuffed, but i was. So i stepped to her and said "Goeie aand mevrou" (good evening ma'am) with mouth wide open she says whaaat, where are you from, lovely what are you doing here, she asks. we have a fat rap, Meryl was her name. At the end of our tete-a-tete, she was offering me friends and family discounts and a GPS system, good start to this trip ey? It was raining, it was dark so cautiously, with the help of my newly 'acquired' GPS, I made my way to my hotel. Parking was a bit of a hack, but i got there in the end. Pretty styling i tell ya. Hopped onto the internet to do some research as to where to go f...

And just like that a week has come and gone. Yesterday had an unexpectedly pleasant start to it. I woke up to the sound of rain falling which made it harder for me to get out of bed an no sooner did I get up, make a bowl of oats did I hear a rap on the door from the caretaker to say “Check out at 10 mate”. But before I set off though I had booked a flight to #Queenstown, but I was struggling to find a place to crash and a way to get out of there to #Dunedin …economically. I did some research into Queenstown and as beautiful as it looked, it was about action and adventure sport and skiing, I was not about that life, so I logged on to the airline site and made the alteration. Finished my packing loaded up North, my trusted modern day steed, and off we set wading through the rains of #Taupo, destination Hamilton. On the way to Hamilton, say 7km into my journey, I saw a sign called #HukaFalls. I was like I ain’t running a race am I so I pulled over took a stroll along   the s...

What i forgot to add in part 1 was as soon as i landed as is customary, i bought a local sim from #vodafone for 45NZD. This gave me 3gb, 200min, 200sms. That is R450 give or take, which is quite comparable to some of the prices we get back home right?  So Monday morning, my kind hosts had left me a note about what to do if i decided to leave. I thought let me take a stroll into town and then figure out what to do. It was another easy 30 minute walk, met with a frequent 'How are ya'. Tauranga is a lovely city and i can definitely see it being hectic in the summer months, it is considered one of the South Island's main cities. As i walked toward the centre of town, i looked for the place with the most locals and this is were i stopped for breakfast. It was a #SierraCafe on #CameronStreet was the place. Merrily I scoffed away and then carried on on my merry way towards the city centre. I walked around a bit and realized i should head on out....

The last 2 days have been so chilled and thank goodness for that, I started to feel that I was taking part in the amazing race! Early 2017 I received a call from my good mate Tim, saying Sham, #LionsWeries, #NewZealand, let's do it. Being a proper die hard #AllBlack fan, I was all in particularly after i missed the #RWC in 2011. So in Jan I booked my flight only to get confirmation from Tim that he had ditched me for cricket at Lords with his missus, can't fault the lad, priorities right. Whatever happened I was still all in 3 weeks in #Aotearoa....the land of the long white cloud.  Before i knew it, it was here 15th June, I had no time to plan or do anything, didn't even have an opportunity to get excited about the trip, the only time i figured out when I landed was when I was on the flight, in my mind 24 hrs meant i would get there around 2pm when i left #CapeTown, add a few hours thanks to time zones. Fortunately though because I know myself, I...