Next stop will be back to the b&b for stargazing
[Posted from Mrs Foggs super cool iphone]
There seems to be a bit of a trend for signs on the path here and we spotted this gem directly outside an insurance brokers office.
Cool place and some good food too, I managed to redeem myself with Mr Fogg by taking us to Bullions for some surprisingly gastronomic food.
We visited the local gold mine today. In its prime Thames was bigger than Auckland and was one of the richest areas for gold mined in quartz seams around the area. We went around the gold mine buildings (dull wrecks with nothing to see), had a tour underground which was actually pretty cool ( and wet, and damp and our tour guide looks to have brought his new girlfriend along to impress her, shame she just had flip flops on and got wet sandy feet) and then we got to pan for gold.
Now I thought I would enjoy gold panning. It sort of works like this. Dunk metal plate groove side down into bed of sand. Scoop some from bottom into your plate, swill with muddy water, throw away big stones, keep swilling and eventually find teeny teeny shiny bits of black in bottom and you’ve got gold.
In reality – swill sand around metal plate, attempt to rinse and end up losing half of said sand. Get splashed by Mr Fogg as he rinses too. Listen to other “expert” tourist tell us all how to do it properly. Listen more to “expert” tourist telling us all what other bits of rock and stone are “ooh that’s a garnet, and that’s a blah blah stone, oh that’s an opal yackety yack”. Swill more muddy water into plate, find lots of sand, get fed up, drop sand and plate in the dirty horse trough full of water and wait to be congratulated by Mr Fogg for finding something interesting to do, hold breath, hold breath, hold breath, oh well. Go back to car and find something more interesting like counting clouds!
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Lunch, so do we stop at a world famous fish and chip restaurant or drive on to a pokey little cafe in Pipiroa called worryingly “The Pipiroa Country Kitchen, Purveyors of wickedly good country fare”, Mrs Fogg decided it would be cool to stop here oh boy!
Burger, yuck, no salad, no fries, Mrs Fogg had a toasty not nice sarnie and two drinks all for £12, bargain. The best bit, this hand written sign hanging in the loo, top ten recommendation, hell no. The sign reads hanging below a toilet smelly thing “Do not take it home, for public smell good!” Alrighty then.
On to Thames and the Cotswold Cottage, after visiting a gold mine and panning for gold.
Good Thames from here.
I started using it just before we went away. Overnight in the hotel in London the morning of the flight I woke up to a heavily swollen eye and a rash on my chin. Ah well, I assumed I’d mistakenly eaten onion or something that had triggered an allergic reaction and duly got ready and applied the same moisturiser. Oh dear.
Still oblivious to the cause of the rash we flew out and on arrival had a wash and applied the same moisturiser. By this time the rash was much worse and itchy as hell. Deep joy, so I dragged Mr Fogg to the local pharmacy.
Imagine my disbelief when she promptly told me that it was the Clinique product and to stop using it. I’m now in recovery with a nice blotchy face and trying to avoid the sun for a while.
Just wait until I get back home Clinique. You and I shall be having words. Hypoallergenic my arse!!!!! One wrecked face and possibly three weeks to clear it. Grrrr
[Posted from Mrs Foggs super cool iphone]
[Posted from Mrs Foggs super cool iphone]
Auckland is a pretty city with very diverse cultures but as Mrs Fogg says, very small in city sizes. Chatting with Mrs Pastie online last night (Ginny Kiwi bird) she found Mrs Fogg’s comment amusing stating that to New Zealander’s this is the largest city they have, oh well tiny towns here we come. To be honest we love the small backwater places, more interesting (and less chance of museums too).
The picture is of the Auckland skyline, which is up there with HK and Boston, very beautiful.
looking forward to the next few weeks, narrow roads and nutter US drivers having to come to terms with left hand drive, km/h and roundabouts (which in isolation is enough to befuddle, but altogether, oh boy).
Last Brekky in Auckland here.
Great sleep – check, must have slept at least 8 or 9 hours yesterday
Great company – check. Mr Fogg was on full form, nutty as hell and bouncy! And only with two coffees too!
Great weather – check. Twenty four degrees, deep blue sky and no clouds.
Nice location – check. Auckland is tiny but cute with incredibly friendly people.
So it was a choice today of going to the museum and the planetarium or doing something that did not involve trying to drag Mr Fogg around historic things. No museum then……
Off instead on a ferry ten minutes across the bay to a tiny island where Devonport is. It is a small village dating back to mid 1800s and before that was a Maori settlement (see that Mr Fogg, got some history in there too). There is a long dead volcano on top called Mt Victoria which was converted into an underground fort to repel Russian attacks and apparently the island is riddled with old military tunnels.
The best thing about Devonport is that you go to buy fish and chips ( the fish here has a choice of three but we opted for Hoki) and then go sit and eat them out of the paper on the beach. So we did. The portions were huge, the fish great and the view across the bay back to Auckland spectacular.
We went and annoyed the local Tourist office ( Mrs Helpful clearly decided the pair of us were mad after chatting to us for 20 mins and smiled indulgently at us after a while), before catching the ferry back and bagging seats right at the front of the ship.
Great day, tired feet. I’ve loads of brochures of things to do next and can feel something historic around the corner…..watch out Mr Fogg, might sneak a museum into the itinerary yet!
Last night in Auckland before we go collect the hire car in the morning.
[Posted from Mrs Foggs super cool iphone]
Mr Fogg Rant over, Grrrr (oh was I supposed to warn about my ranting first, dam).
Sipping a Latte in Gloria Jeans Coffee House here.
Yey Me!
Wandering around we bumped into a fish eating monster with bad breath and hair stood next to Gollum (gonna get a slap for that).
Since we only ate 4 hours ago we decided to have steak and champagne in the Skywalk tower served by a Harry Potter lookilikee (poor kid), whilst watching people free fall off the tower (on a line of course), or for the princely sum of 140NZD (about 75 in UK monopoly money), you can put on a harness and walk around the top of the tower without any handrails, personally think I’d rather use the dosh on the fizzy falling down water.
And now that our room is ready its back to the hotel for a shower and a desperate change of clothes, considering we have been in transit since Saturday and today is Tuesday.
The hotel is not exactly a backpackers place of worship (having seen a few of those this am) however it has seen better days. That said we do have a view of the sea and all the usual amenities.
And now two days to see what Auckland has to offer before we collect the hire car and drive to Thames on Thursday.