Prelude to the next whirlwind tour... Bookings and scandales

 The new Whirlwind tour

For the first time in my life I have started booking an overseas trip to New Zealand that was not months in advance. I was not going to take a trip after buying my new set of wheels this year, a Can Am Spyder Roadster. The reason I have started booking flights was due to my grandma turning 80 in September and she was unable to fly, so I thought it would be better for me to visit.

After having a quick look at prices before I went to work to ask my boss I found the flights for the dates I wanted was around $600 return. Several days later they were at least $100 cheaper with Jetstar, although I was using webjet to look at and compare prices. Once I spoke to my bigger boss as my immediate boss was sick I was told I was allowed to. When I booked the flights for the three week trip the prices had dropped to $369 return. I wasn’t going to complain about that at all.

Next was to workout where I wanted to go after visiting grandma. I was staying with her for five or so days right after my flight over. Using the intercity bus service to look at times and when to travel I wrote down the prices as I was going to place a booking later on. 2 hours later I found the prices had changed. Don’t ask I have no idea why myself. I booked the trips and found one little niggling problem. One of the locations I had made a booking for was a 1 minute trip for $9. The location was from a local backpackers to the town. I was wanting to travel out of the town. Plus I had already made the booking and paid for it. After having a look and trying to change the booking I ended up changing the departure location and then the arrival was able to be changed from a 1 minute trip to a full journey.

My trip will be a whirlwind to a few places. This time I will be visiting Auckland, Whangarei, Hamilton, Coromandel Town, Thames, Hamilton and Tauranga. I only really know enough about the locations like the bus journey and hostel locations. I do know The Coromandel area had plenty to do with mining and Kauri logging. I have visited Auckland, Whangarei on numerous occasions, but Hamilton last time was an over nighter. I will hunt for some fun historical information while I am in the country. I have visited many places in New Zealand so far and been around nearly both islands. This trip will again be on my own except for staying with grandparents. I will get lost maybe trying to find where I am staying or end up finding something new. It will still be cold too.