Auckland Airport Pacific Inn Mangere

... we discovered a cave, however, we didn't have the guts to go in! It was obviously a sea cave and the sea was beginning to come back in, I didn't really fancy an adventure that thrilling, particularly when I found out that we had no mobile phone coverage! We will leave that for another day when we are a family of 4, have some torches with us and the sea is going out!

We were really lucky with the weather, the rain managed to ...

... my waterproof in the tumble dryer with some nick wax treating stuff, as the rain was so heavy today it came through my 'waterproof' !! but I have never treated it with stuff before so I will live and learn.
Very excited because tonight Rainer (my mate Simon Raine who used to teach at MB and now lives and teaches in Auckland) and his girlfriend Debs are meeting me at the hostel for reunion drinks and dinner! Not seen him since Dec 2006 so really looking forward to catching up ...

We're in New Zealand! But boy what a morning – woke up at 3:00
in the morning Thursday Tahiti time – had a great 6 hour flight to
New Zealand (caught a couple of z's) and arrived in Auckland at 11:00
FRIDAY morning! The New Zealand airport is the most efficient airport
ever – so clean and customs was easy. As soon as we get our
luggage our shuttle driver greeted us and ...

... a mountain over Queenstown. Preferable to his first nickname which was Small Cock. Quite funny actually that one - for the Stray drivers go by their nikcnames for everything - such as calling up hostels and reserving our dorms. "Hi Jenny - this is Small cock from Stray...". Need I say any more. Skins is as sound as Nat my original driver.

Kaikoura

North of Christchurch on the way back to Picton where we'll ferry our way back over to Wellington ...

... arrived in New Zealand two days ago. I flew into Auckland, did a bit of walking around town but spent a couple hours in a super cheap internet cafe updating pictures online. I joined the Kiwi Experience bus early the next morning and from the very beginning it was spectacular scenery unlike any I've ever seen before. Five minutes outside the city was a volcanic crater that was inverted into the ground, not what I would expect, but it's fun being surprised. When I first saw all the ...

... what possessed my fingers; I come from the William Forrester reason for writing. "Writers write things to give readers something to read." You are still reading aren't you? Now read that quote with a bad Sean Connery accent, it's just more fun that way. Like I began to imply, before my fingers took over and extricated the mindless drivel that roams around inside my head waiting for a laps in concentration allowing a sudden and optimistically droll liberation, the ...

... to paint the picture I'm faced with most morning, however I in no way wish to ridicule the guy as I think that given his age of 70+ the mere fact that he regularly attends gym is to be encouraged and it's a testament to his commitment. Each morning he attends dressed in an off white Terry towelling dressing gown over the top of an off white vest and blue shorts; to finish off the ensemble there's red woollen socks that are down around ...

... was not until 5.30pm we had time to do a little more exploring on foot, we once again headed up towards the Sky Tower but then walked on past it towards the Victoria Park Market another stop for the tourists on the hop on hop off bus service. This proved to be very disappointing selling goods which would have been better thrown in the trash/rubbish, but none the less it was good exercise. It was then time to return to the Tower and ...