The Saltings Estate Warkworth

... well; Morgan was petrified to start with but soon relaxed and thoroughly enjoyed. Bronwens riding skills are getting better and with a few more lessons she will be quite proficient. Tried to get Tracey on a horse but she was having none of it; Gutted as that would have been a sight to behold!!

Headed off towards Matakana for a spot of shopping but there wasn't much there in the way of gift shops, so we continued up the road to Leigh, where we stopped ...

... the plane' rule. All that frustration was taken away when we flew over the Southern Alps. The view was breathtaking, whispy white clouds floated by while rivers got busy winding their way down out of the mountains and out towards the coastline. I'm assuming it was Greymouth we were looking down on. And the white capped mountains ranged south as far as I could see. Beautiful. Hello New Zealand. Quite a quiet airport made it easy to re-assemble my bike, after customs cleaned my tent ...

... tide that invloved a few cover drives into the beach breaks. Luba and Vanessa formed the spectating party. Followed by lunch at Browns Bay. Then left the girls behind to head into town to start the beverages at Galbraith's Alehouse. I was told this used to be an old public library and it made a fine brewpub with a great selection of ales. What I wasn't told was that it also used to be a line-dansing night club! Matt's work colleagues popped from thier work ...

... Anne Marie.
· Breakfast of bacon and (double yoke) eggs.
· Walk to Gull Point and back just before it rained.
· There was a great view from Gull Point over the channel to North Head.
· After a light lunch at was back home, on the ferry, to Half Moon Bay.

... this morning...it's not that early really..) and we've been wandering up Queen Street looking for stuff to buy cheaper than at home. After I've finished typing this we're off for some lunch - I fancy sushi as there are sushi places everywhere here but Sarah hates it, says it tastes like fish, so unless we get a food court somewhere that does everything then I'll need to sacrifice my sampling of some decent sushi. There's always pizza...... So, our time ...

... lounge turned into an airport hostel with lots of other ways and strays making the most of the seats with their rucksacks and sleeping bags!! It just seemed the norm!! Then our new arrival staggered into the airport lounge!!!! JULIE had landed!!!! Julie James 's sister and Ruth's sister inlaw her favourite colour is blue and her favourite animal is an Albert dog she also likes stella and tv burp . Then we all staggered out of the aipport and ...

... we transferred to the Satellite Bus and went to Mount Eden. This is an impressive site that allows for good scenic shots of the entire city of Auckland. We eventual made two loops of the city of Auckland and were very impressed at how clean the city was. In other cities you could see the older buildings in decent shape but in Auckland they appeared to be fully restored. There was very little graffiti; we actually did not see any until our walk about later in the day ...

... walked ad climbed from 1030am - 1430pm with short rests along the way. When we made it to the bottom I was absolutely exhausted! We sat down and tried to eat the lunch we had brought with us but it was absolutely swarming with wasps and bees that kept landing on us. I HATE wasps so gave up trying to eat and found somewhere with less wasps. I think we should nickname Rangitoto wasp island!! Happily all 3 of us made back to Auckland via the ferry without ...

... Really though, it was fun and it felt pretty cool to make such a lasting impact on the environment. The last week of school was pretty busy, as I have been trying to complete all of my lessons in addition to completing my work for IU. My soccer team had its first game last week and it was a nice 4-0 win. The team did not play overly well, spacing on the field seems to be a big problem, but ...

I have just returned from supervising my first field trip, and seriously what a tiring experience. Students can get rowdy in a classroom but outside school and being fed sugar, they are redic. The weather still remains good here although there has been some rain recently. The weather is odd here, one minute it is sunny and the next it rains for a few minutes and then the sun comes back out ...