I came back from an amazing holiday in New Zealand about a week ago. I have only had time to blog about it now as I spent the last week absorbing all I could as a new hire for phuketheadlines. I will leave my first week at Sidney for another post. This post is a recap of my time spent in Auckland and fuiji. I packed light and didn’t have much luggage, so I caught a train to the international airport. It cost me about $10 using my student card, so it was a lot cheaper than catching a taxi. I am going to miss my student card when it expires in March. Until then I intend to make the most of it! After checking in with Virgin airline I had about two hours to kill before boarding, so I proceeded to perusing through all the Duty Free stores. I walked into a bookstore and almost bumped into George Gregan (Wallabies Captain for those that aren’t rugby union fans) in the fiction section. I thought twice about saying hello, as I figured it would be best to leave him alone. You can never know how highly strung these players get before a game. Just as well, cos after he left the bookstore he went to sit by himself in an empty lounge at a boarding gate. Anyway I ended up buying Robert Ludlum’s The Bourne Legacy to read on the plane and the beach in Phuket. The plane trip took an agonising 8 hours in the claustrophobic spaces of economy class. Although I enjoyed the friendly service and in-flight movies. I watched Flushed Away and The Guardian. Both were enjoyable enough to pass some of the time, although I spent most of the time reading my book. I arrived in Auckland in the afternoon there, and caught a taxi to the hotel. I was lucky enough to share a cab with two other people that were also going to the same hotel. So I only had to pay 10 dollar instead of 30 dollar. I was told that it would cost up to about 40 dollar using the metered taxis between the airport and the city. I met up with my girlfriend Margo at the hotel. Margo arrived at Sidney airport that morning via a business trip to India. We stayed at the Novo Hotel as it is central to a lot of places in the city. It is also connected to the Sky Rail, and is within walking distance to some of the biggest shopping centres that I’ve ever been in. After dumping my luggage we went out for dinner, explored the shops around the hotel, then went back to the hotel to get some sleep for the next day.