Overslept by a bit. Rushed down for poached eggs. We have a few varied things to do taday: book at least one night in Tonga (which night? [24th or 25th] Do we cross the International Date Line?), buy a swimsuit, go to a dive shop ([for] dive computers, shorties and boots), sort out a car for our return. No Net Club!
The dive shop directions are pretty straightforward. Up the road, turn right, turn left. Sadly, I turned right at the first set of lights, Helen brought the map of New Zealand [rather than the streetmap of Auckland] and nobody seemed to know where Dominion Road was. Two and a half hours later after a lot of local directions we were there. The dive computer [we were interested in] was the same price (50% more than the UK) as we'd seen them advertise on the Internet. Odd that. Besides they had none in stock.
We had a nice lunch over the road, though. We didn't see a single bus on the 40 minute walk back (they do run on a Saturday) and I sun burnt myself. Swimsuits seem quit expensive in New Zealand [NZ$ 30-60 for each part of a bikini set].
The general population in Auckland is Asians, Polynesians, tourists and a few white guys. There seems to be a penchance for Japanese sports coupes with very noisy exhausts. We went to cost out the Sky Tower, NZ$ 10 for backpackers. How do they tell? It turns out you need a YHA card or equivalent. 
And [we] tried to fathom out the rules for the Americas Cup [quite big over here]. Quater final losers who did well in the round robin [stages] get a second quater final chance! [How does that work?]
We bought sandwiches for tea to keep costs down [we have been running at about budget -- yikes!] and resolved to do some laundry.
We didn't do that, nor have we booked Tonga, yet. [We] haven't planned [our way round] New Zealand [for] when we return, nor booked a car. Useless! At least we haven't gone to Net Club today (though we needed to [in the end]).
An early night (11) and resolve to get up early tomorrow and do something useful.
PS. We've shifted rooms again and this is another one with a strange odour. You get used to it [the odour] quite quickly but you only have to be out of the room for two minutes to spot it again on your return.
City YHA, Auckland S36.85673 E174.76274 Elev. 104m.
Copyright 2002 Ian Fitchet. All rights reserved.