Abode de Fleur Auckland

... on to Makarora we did a few ocean sight seeing stops and went to a beach to look for Limestone, i was not successful in this as in tradition you are meant to give your first piece of Limestone away - so did not quite see the point! lol We also stopped off at a waterfall and blue pools and that is where i found my key still in my pocket from my last hostel - so that was $20 deposit lost, hoever i have posted it ...

... Jamie" ....a nice little touch!!

After the bridge it was to the top of the sky tower which is like 238m high at it tip, no offence to Portsmouth but it puts the Spinekar tower to shame! see some great views even though it wasn't the clearest of days but I had to go just to say i'd been up it!
Next day I got up early and headed off to mount Eden in Devenport which is 1 of the many volcanoes that Auckland is built on. its all covered over in grass now but you ...

... around Titirangi, as that was an area that we had spent time researching before leaving the UK. We had lunch at a little cafe in Titirangi - the food was good as was the coffee. The area around Titirangi seems to be on the edge/in the rainforest and there are lots and lots of beautiful trees and ferns. It seems to be an arty area with lots of artists and craft type people living in the ...

... delivering high quality sails with a service to match. Backed up by 45 years of expertise, Hyde has always placed itself at the forefron.

NEW ZEALAND DESIGNED AND MANUFACTURED - YOU CAN'T GO WRONG, with the added value of a family owned and operated business this will ensure you the best in Service and High quality long lasting products. Our workshop/storage facilities are available from East Tamaki or Papakura Locations. Whether you require space to work from or ...

... for 2 days (Kirsty's friends visited us one evening so I finally got to know a beautiful card game called FISH). After Hilton we booked a week in Formule 1 hotel in the city centre. It's funny as hotel description might be deceiving - we supposed to have a Sky Tower view - yeah we can see a very tiny top bit of Sky Tower, we supposed to have a balcony - it's 1,5 metre long and 0,5 metre deep, and a size of the room is just enough to put dbl bed to and walk around ...

... because their flights were in at 6:30 am. As it turns out, that morning we only missed each other by 10 minutes. Right when we were getting to the room they opened up the door and we all started screaming and hugging and streaming some more. Those were the best hugs ever! I was so excited I forgot my sunglasses were on my head and knocked them off. We were on the 4th floor and the hallway was outside - so they fell and ...

... carrying round through Asia and Australia. We hired a car to drive to the Kauri Forest. We stayed in a cabin and went on a few short, easy walks to these massive trees. On our way back to Auckland we took a detour via the Bay of Islands and had lunch at Opua. It didn't look that impressive... maybe it was the weather again! Our hostel reception closed at 7pm and we ended up getting back at 6.45pm, phew! We flew to Queenstown the next morning.

... Americas Cup a few years ago. They certainly have a long sailing history and this is for sure the City of Sails! We have really enjoyed our stay in Auckland so far, but tomorrow we are picking up our car to drive up to Bay of Islands where we will stay at least 3 nights. But we are planning to go back to Auckland on Sunday and hopefully stay with Jon & Robyn and get to go out on their yacht. That would be great! Lots of love from The City of Sails XX L&M

We got a late morning bus out of Rotorua to head to Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, for mid-afternoon. Along the way we passed through the town of Matamata, a.k.a. Hobbiton as this is where Peter Jackson filmed this part of the Lord of the Rings on one of the local's farmland. We didn't get to see the exact location, but we did get the chance to catch a cheesy photo by ...

... before being admitted to the departures lounge. In theory the departures lounge was air-conditioned, and it was, in contrast to the rest of the airport where we literally had been dripping with the heat (not much sympathy from Canada I realize !).  But we still had two hours before our next flight, we would need liquid, and you can't drink the tap water.  Remember we have no local currency...  Mark heads into the bar/cafe to negotiate, and for five British pounds he ...