A four week nutshell: Anzac weekend.. and Wagamama!

I've been self-weaned. I frequent the Globe on a decreasing basis and have been doing productive things. Days of dorms, of daily Burger King and not much else have been replaced by refereeing Sunday football, boxing and road trips. Since it's time to play catch-up for four weeks, let's start from the top.

We've been popping down to Escape where there are GE employee-exclusive happy hours which seem to have attracted the punters from work. So an hour or two there and then I've managed to show my colleagues, supervisors and a manager or two the inside of my lovely Globe Bar (I know I just said I'm not going there much, this was one of the last times.) Another guaranteed good night was had by all. Add to that a couple of house parties, a social in GE's boardroom, and a *sweet* meal at Auckland's new Wagamama (yum yum yum) and there have been good times had with mates from work. In fact, people were totally ignorant to the institution that is Wagamama. So ignorant in fact, that when I asked Amanda if she wanted to come along, she asked why I wanted to 'Whack a Mama.' Hmm.. On the whole, GE has been sweet; best area in Auckland to work, good friends, lots of Internet (take a few calls now and then) and frequent socials - a toast to General Electric. Hurrah!

But the meat and drink of this post is our trip over Anzac weekend (22nd - 25th April) to the North. It was absolutely stunning. Georgina, being the shrewd event organiser that she is, took it upon herself (with no reservation from myself or Liam) to put together a plan for our few days out of the city. After a short drive to Paihia on Friday evening, Liam and I checked out the nightlife in relaxed fashion before getting a decent kip for Saturday's boat trip. Funny how my ex-girlfriend and I still manage to do similar things on her birthday.. Anyhoo, we were lucky enough to see a pod (not sure if that's the right term) of killer whales swimming around in the Bay, I'll get some video footage up soon of that. Graceful, placid things to watch, definitely a treat.

After indulging in a cheese plate at New Zealand's first inn, the Duke of Malborough, Russell, we drove up to Kaitaia to spend the night there before driving north to Cape Reinga. Highway 1, New Zealand's main road, turns into a gravel track, a delight for aspiring rally drivers in hire cars like myself. Good fun drive up to the top, tried to avoid windscreen chips and paint scratches as much as possible, but at the end of the day, it's Georgina's credit card they've got, not mine. Cheers love. We also tried our hands at sand tobogganing - George picked the biggest dune to walk up, which took us fifteen minutes and the possibility of a stroke every couple of tiresome strides, and as we sat on the top, with volumes of sand being blown in our faces, thinking 'who's sodding idea was this?' we decided to do one down and it was *great* fun. Word of advice to anyone doing it: look at the landscape and climb up the highest, steepest one. It's more fun that way.

We stopped off at a beach or two and the odd lookout point before arriving in Keri-Keri, a quaint town on the West coast. Liam and I decided to have a bit of a toke and go driving. "Give Way, man!" Dicey, dicey stuff.

Anzac day saw everything shut, so it was a McDonalds for breakfast, making us all feel worse and sluggish for a couple hours. And what better way to cure such a feeling than visiting a diet-wicked and over-indulging chocolate factory? Yum. We'd also made time to visit NZ's oldest stone and wooden houses (bit of sightseeing has to be done), chill out at a cafe with friendly dogs and a gay dolphin, and making it to the kauri forests. These are where some of the world's largest trees are found amongst the rainforests in the West. They are towering, gargantuan things (check the pictures below) which made men feel inferior as girls cheekily chuckled about the girth of such beasts. Symbolised as the Father of the Jungle, these things really were the Daddy.

A quick stop-off at a lake on the way home, and we then burned it, mostly in 3rd gear, down the windy highways back home, back to smelly air, back to reality, back to work, back to Auckland. I love it here, but booo I wanna go back on the road. George, Liam and I agreed it was a fantastic few days - have a peek at the pictures. I'm actually leaving in a few days, on a Stray Bus tour from next week, I'll post more details of my future plans in the next few days.

And if you're reading this, please please click on the 'comments' link below and leave us one, it's nice to hear from friends who have made it here.