Fun in Ohakune

We have been in Ohakune around 10days now and we are loving it! We have started work at Kings, lots of hard work trying to get ready for the season. We have been painting, carrying beds around, cleaning and generally doing all the hard jobs. The season opens on Friday though so we will be working properly then - real shifts and everything!

We went to a charity fashion show the other night to raise money for St Johns Ambulance, which is very important here because the nearest hospital is 1hour away! It was a great show, all the fashion was from local stores and the models worked there, live music and a raffle. We won $100 voucher for the local supermarket - brilliant prize (James was worried we would win a free Brazilian).

A girl called Heidi has moved into the staff quarters of the lodge with us. Luckily she is really nice and has a black Labrador, which James loves to take for a walk. All in all things are going well.

Back to Ohakune

After a great trip to Ohakune we left and headed up to Waitomo. We stopped for one night and went to see the Waitamo glow worm caves. The tour was great, a woman showed us around the caves, told us about the history and then took us on a boat where all you could see was hundreds and hundreds of glow worms! A really great thing to see.

After Waitamo we set off to Hamilton, New Zealands biggest inland city. Mainly dominated by a shopping centre, we had a look around and had some lunch. Next stop was back to Auckland to drop off Rosie (the campervan - named it ourselves in the end!) Sad to see her go we had become quite attached, but onwards and upwards!

Quite literally upwards, back to Ohakune (pic) where we will be living and working during the 4 month ski season. We will be staying at Canoe Safaris Lodge and working here and at Kings Bar. Free accommodation and paid work - result!

Wellington and Wanganui

We had two nights in Wellington and it was pretty cold and wet for the both of them. The city itself was quite nice, smaller than Auckland even though it's the capital!

We had a good look around Te Papa which is a huge museum on the waterfront, filled with lots of NZ history and what not. We also had a look in lots and lots of shops, and realised that on our modest traveller budget we can't afford much of what we want, and even if we could, we would have to carry everything we buy around for the rest of our time here. Had lunch outside 'The Beehive', NZ's parliament building (pic). The original design was done by the architect on a napkin, and you can tell when you see it.

From there it was around a two and a half hour journey back north to Wanganui, which was much warmer! We had one night at a campsite near the beach, and had a morning run along it the next day. Wanganui was pretty nice, and we stopped at the Warehouse to stock up on some cheap jogging bottoms and a pack of Anzac biscuits (the essentials).

Next stop is Ohakune on the southern slopes of Mt Ruhapehu.