Arrived in New Zealand

Well I have just arrived in Auckland, not much to report yet as all I've done so far is gone from the airport to the hostel. One thing I will say though is that on first glance New Zealand feels more like the UK than Austalia so far. I'm in Auckland for 3 days and then I need to work out what to do from there. I'm looking forward to getting back to less structured and organised way of travelling. I have a month here, I'll tour the North island first and see where I get to before deciding if I have time to see any of the south island. I think my first stop will to go north of here and do some wreck diving. Then probably head up to the top of the island before heading south and see the caves and Lord of the Rings country.

Well my last few days in Ausralia were a bit of a washout, literally. I'm sure you have all heard about all the floods in Brisbane. It was good timing for me to turn up just as the worst floods in 35 years hit. So there isn't much I can tell you about Brisbane and most things were shut. I didn't even realise what was going on until I got to the hostel. On the train from Brisbane airport I could see some water on roads and lots of traffic but I didn't realise what was going on. On the way to the hostel I got a phone call from them asking what time I was going to arrive as they were going down to look at the river. Sounded like a very strange statement when I didn't know what was going on. They filled me in on what was going on when u got there. I went down to look at the river on several occasions over the next few days and saw all manner of things floating by. Boats, pontoons, larger wheelie bins, trees, and even a fridge freezer. Some people even saw a couple of cars.

Anyway that's it for now, I should be able to give you a better account of New Zealand in a couple of days once I've done a bit more exploring.