On Friday, Angie, Laura, and I waved farewell to John (sadly Niel was away) and the Ranch that was our home for the past weeks. Thanks John and Niel for making us feel so welcome and feeding us so well in your beautiful home!

(Pictured: Angie left; Laura right - "This way?!")

We made our way back to Auckland by bus and into the YHA Auckland International Hostel. We took it easy on Friday, getting in a nice day off for the first time in the last couple weeks. The afternoon was spent lying around in our hostel room enjoying overpriced chicken burgers from Oborto's. We had a corner room with an awesome view offered by the two walls that were nothing but windows. In the evening, we huddled around the glowing screen of my laptop watching downloaded episodes of Grey's Anatomy.

Then Saturday came, the first and last day of indulgence for a long while to come. We threw on some sharp clothes, (well about as sharp as a backpacker can look) and made our way down Queen Street to the restuarants by the Pier. We enjoyed a bottle of red wine and an Italian dinner by the waterfront. Afterwords we stopped by an Irish pub and, had a couple drinks and heard a few songs by a live band. The girls ran into an Irish couple they had met a month back while in Australia. The crowd here was a little older and tamer than we were aiming for that night so we decided to make our way to place more suited for our age-range. We cut through a couple alleys and down a few blocks to the Globe Bar. This bar and dance club, in the basement of a popular backpacker is one of the hottest spots for backpackers traveling through the city. We had an awesome time, dancing like idiots with people from all over the world. We spotted Edward's (John's son) girlfriend here, Iris. It's funny, Angie and Laura talked about going cheap and getting guys to buy them drinks throughout the night. However, by the time we wrapped up the night and made our way back, I was the only one who got anything free. I got a jack and coke from a New Zealand guy that thought California was cool, and a girl that said I had to try a lemon vodka.

In a few minutes I'm due to meet up with Laura and Angie. We'll be picking up our car for hire (rental car) at about 2:00pm. Over the next 4 days we will be traveling across the northern teretories of New Zealand. We'll be driving up the 12 highway along the west coast, then to 90 Mile Beach at the northern most tip of New Zealand, down through the pristine Bay of Islands, and then back down the east coast of the country before returning to Auckland on Friday. We'll be staying one night at Gilbert's place, a surfer from Opononi that I met through couchsurfing.com. Other than that the trip is very open ended, we'll be stopping off at anything interesting we see along the way, eating when we get hungry, and sleeping when we get tired. I'll be sure to take tons of pictures along the way and post again when I get the chance. Later!