Afterwards we headed back to the City Lodge in Central Auckland that we had stayed in when we first arrived in NZ over a month previously. It was very civilised and allowed us to skype from the comfort our room. The only downside was the fact that at the end of a hard day of getting ourselves organised for Borneo we had a bit of a hill to stomp up.
On one of our seemingly endless shopping trips up Queens Street I spotted a bus displaying this quality message.
That evening we arranged to meet up with Warwick and Amanda. They had graciously let us use an address of theirs so we could get our passports sent up to them from the Indian consulate, rather than having to go all the way back to Wellington once our Indian visas had been issued.
It was great to see them after we had had such a fab month exploring their splendid country. After a couple of beers in a nice pub on Quay St, they took us to the viaduct, a very pleasant part of town on the harbour surrounding the mooring area of the big yachts. There were plenty of nice eating options, and we had a very tasty Italian. That was something we're probably not going to get for a while, so we were well chuffed.
Inevitably after a couple of bottles of wine it seemed rude not to nip round the corner to one of the bars near by and have a last little drinky. After all we were unlikely to see them again for some time (although you're so invited to come and stay with us in England whenever we're back and we would love you to!).
The bar of choice was called Cowboys and took its theme quite seriously, hence Amanda swiftly decked us out in cowboy hats. I identified the spring mounted saddle bar-stool and immediately got into character.
Amanda managed to find lovely pink hats for her and Warwick. No irrelevant finger pointing for you here Warwick!
And we dragged a helpful stranger in to get a picture of all of us.
Unrestrained pointing...It has its place in some photos I think.
It was only shortly after this that the tequila's came out. Woooooh. It was swiftly down hill from there...
As you can just about make out from the pictures...
Though not so much from this one...
Particularly this one...
Definitely this one...
She's just got a toenail's grip on reality...but seems to be hiding it well...
Until this one...
Neither me or the lady have a clear memory from this point onwards, but we both had a totally fab night, so thanks you two! Suffice is to say we felt it quite horrifically in the morning, and I would say Clair was balancing on the edge of quite severe alcohol poisoning. We are sooo out of practice. Are we ever going to be able to live in London again?
The next day was therefore mostly spent trying to pull ourselves together, before I headed out to get some of our last bits posted off and necessary things purchased. That evening we had planned to have one final hello/goodbye with our friends John and Erin who were arriving back in Auckland before they continued their travels on to south-east Asia.
In the end Clairy was too poorly to make it out to see them, so I made up for it by ordering the two lamb shanks meal and eating it all myself.
Actually I think we were all quite concerned about making the most of some hefty western food before leaving New Zealand. Check out those platefuls!
It was really great to see them again, and that's not just because they bought me some fantastic Italian ice-cream afterwards. We really hope to see you guys too in England or we'll just have to head over to Oregon.
That was the end of our fantastic New Zealand trip. We were both really blown away by it, and after initially worrying how it might stack up against the incredible experience of the South Pacific beforehand, we ended up having a totally different but really amazing time.
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