Airedale Hotel Auckland

... then headed off for the Ponsonby Primary Fireworks display and fayre down at Point Erin. Once again it was one of those situations when we didn't know quite what to expect. Obviously our experiences of Bonfire Night have involved cold, wet and muddy nights in the past, not a picnic and a glass of wine! The school use this event as one of their fund raising events for the year, so there was food to buy, face painting, lucky dips, a bar etc etc. There were so ...

... next morning.... no phone call. Called them at 10 am, turns out my bags were in NZ at that time, but for some reason, they were in the south island....?! and the man said he would have them brought up here with the next plane to auckland that gets in at 1 and I would get a phone call around 3. Again.... no phone call! This time Mark rang up (just to be stern with them haha) It worked! My bags showed up at our door at 6 ...

... on a mussel festival when passing through Nelson so we parked for sea-food lunch. The area prides itself on its famous tasty green shelled mussels exclusive to the area... and yes, we did indulge, and yes... we drank a delicious Savignon Blanc with it!! They were not too expensive and very tasty. One little cool place we trekked to was called Hot Water Beach. Two hours before or after low tide you can dig a hole in the sand and make ...

... käytiin paikassa nimeltä TEWWHAKAREWAREWATANGAOTEOPETAUAAWAHIAO ja suosiolla käveltiin, koska kukaan ei halunnut lähteä kokeilmaan paikan nimen lausumista taksikuskille :-) Tämä oli siis ihan oikea, toimiva Maorikylä keskellä tulta ja tulikiveä. Höyryä nousi joka puolelta ja haju oli todella kuvottava, mutta minun mielestä todella mahtava visiitti! Harvemmin nimittäin tulee tälläisiä paikkoja maailmalla vastaan! Kaikkein hurjin homma oli kylän hautausmaa ...

We reckon our day flying from Santiago to Auckland - 9-11 Feb - was 44 hours or so, however we managed pretty well, and of course had a rest on the aircraft (13 hours) and I think did manage a couple of hours sleep. We arrived at our friends, Jocelyn & John's about 10 to 7 and in true hospitable form Jocelyn was up! We spent the morning chatting with John (Jocelyn was at a meeting), then after lunch (delicious sweetcorn straight from the ...

... that of the first RC mission where they made leather and had a printing press. The pits for curing the leather are still there as is all the early printing machinery. They still use all of them for demonstrating purposes today and the guide worked a number of them as he showed us around. We also went to the site where the first treaty was signed between the Europeans and the Maori. Saturday, Sunday and most of today was spent at Manly enjoying the scenery, the walks ...