Massive update, part III (on the way to Wellington)

Part I-Part II

We spent one more night in Auckland before heading south.
Before coming to New Zealand,Kirstenn and I weren't sure where we wanted to end up, but the choice came down to Auckland or Wellington, the two largest cities. Auckland was big. Wellington had some familiarity going for it - one of Kirsten's friends from college had the same working holiday visa we do, and was going to be in Wellington. We also had (not really) family in Wellington - my uncle's first cousin, once removed, lives there.
It didn't take too much convincing to head to Wellington - everyone we talked to in Auckland described their city as "crap" and said Wellington was a more fun town. So the next question was how to get there - we knew we wanted to stop in Rangitoto National Park (about halfway between Auckland and Wellington, which are at the north and south ends of the north island) for a day of skiing. A day, because more would probably sap too much of our cash reserves.
A bus was the first choice, but it turned out taking a bus would be as much as renting a car, so we got a car. After returning from Paihia, we spent another night in Auckland. The hostel had a stay four nights, get one night free deal, which worked for us, because we'd been there four nights before heading north. However, the free night was only good for a dorm-style room - four bunk beds for eight people.
No problem. At least not until the eighth member of the room walked in at 4 a.m. and promptly began urinating in the doorway. My memories of the event are a little foggy. I believe he denied the urination, despite all evidence to the contrary, and was then not-so-kindly asked to leave. At any rate, I got some sleep.
One other aspect of the dorm room was picking up a third for the trip to Wellington - a British girl was heading to Wellington, and offered to pick up some of the petrol cost for the trip down. Works for us.

The trip was uneventful, except for my crash-course (thankfully without any actual crashes) in driving on the wrong side of the road. On the map, we were staying on State Highway 1 most of the way, which on paper appears to correspond with an American interstate. It doesn't.
Hwy. 1 was a several-lane divided highway for about 15 miles outside of Auckland, when it turned into a winding, two-lane road through the country side. It had the same speed limit either way: 100 km/hour, or 60 mph. Also known as: much slower than I usually drive. But I managed.
It was another sunny day, and the three of us pulled off the road a number of times to check out the scenery. It's one of the nicest features of New Zealand's roads - about the time you say to yourself, 'Man, that's a nice view,' they have asmalll turnout or picnic area for you to stop and look at it.

We pulled into National Park village just before sunset, in time to catch a view of the mountains, most of which were featured in The Lord of the Rings as part of Mordor.
Our hostel featured a huge fireplace, in front of which we spent most of the evening. Waking up the next day, the day we were to ski, it was foggy and raining. I decided to go ahead and ski, because I wasn't going to get another chance, while Kirsten decided to bow out and go hiking around the area with the British girl.
It looked like I'd made the wrong decision when I got to the slope - there was almost no snow at the bottom, and what was there was wet. Not slushy, wet. It made for a tough first few runs, not being able to see getting soaked while battling a crowd making their way down the only really usable run.
The ski areas on Mount Ruapehu don't have any trees and the runs aren't particularly well-marked, but they're basically the areas between the rocks. The whole thing's a volcano, which erupted about a decade ago. I'm sure it would have been spectacular to look at, if I could have seen it.
At any rate, the afternoon worked out much better, once I realized how to get to the top of the mountain, and then the back of the top of the mountain. I still couldn't see, but the snow was much better, and most of the time there wasn't anyone else on the mountain. It made for an adventure, trying to pick my way down with less than 50 feet of visibility. One time I almost ran into the base of the chairlift, because I knew it was there, but couldn't see it.

The next day, of course, the clouds lifted, the sun shone, and all was fine, although we were once again in the car. We headed to Wellington, where my uncle's-cousin-once-removed had graciously given us a place to stay based on two e-mails of contact.
Three days later, we'd found an apartment. Kirsten quickly followed that up by landing a couple of temp assignments, bringing in money to pay rent. We've had a little bit of time to explore the city, although we probably haven't been out and about enough.

We'll see what happens from here.

Part I-•Part II