Nov 5 - Books and Beers

Today we had brekky at noon (that's breakfast for all you North Americans) because as per usual, we slept in late. Then we headed over towards the harbour bridge, which is a main attraction of sorts that we haven't seen yet. We walked up the bay along the harbour and through the marine industrial area and went right up to the start of the bridge, but walking it would require more ambition than we presently felt. Besides, walking harbour bridges is such a Sydney in September thing to do! Walked back and over to Borders (bookstore) and spent a couple hours browsing through books on everything from travel to marketing to accounting to fiction to biographies. Basically treated it like a library, and couldn't decide on a book worth lugging around in already very full backpacks, so after our fill of reading, we hiked over to Countdown to pick up pasta sauce and juice for dinner, then back to the hostel to enjoy the sauce and juice with leftover spaghetti and sausages. The meal was decent, but the juice (which we chose because it looked healthy) was absolutely awful. We had 2 different kinds because it was 2 two litre jugs for $6 (or one for $5.35) and one tasted healthy with an awful aftertaste, while the other had a flavor reminiscent of the smell of koalas. One glass each and the rest hit the drain; good riddance.

Internet is one of the most expensive parts of travelling down here (behind accomodation and food), usually amounting to $10 per day (though some places had free internet and some had cheaper options) so we decided to buy a month's worth of Global Gossip internet. They are the most prominent internet provider in hostels and a month cost us $100, so that works out a lot cheaper than the $300 it would otherwise be for November. Now we just have to make sure to book into hostels that have Global Gossip from now on. Surfed the net for awhile, then headed out to see what sort of nightlife there was in Auckland on a Friday night. November 5th is Guy Fawkes Day, which is unofficially celebrated here apparently (and celebrates a British guy trying to blow up Parliament ages ago) and this means fireworks. Unfortunately, since it's not an official holiday, the city didn't plan the fireworks and this meant just some random stuff shot off buildings and near the harbour every once and a while. Had a beer at a Mexican place on the wharf, then went to the Fat Camel backpacker bar for another, but neither were very busy. So we went back to the hostel and Role Models was on TV, so we watched that with the rest of the people in the TV room. The bus leaves at 7:25 AM tomorrow for Bay of Islands, so after the movie, we hit the hay.