Kiwi International Airport Mangere

... man hier nirgendwo in neuseeland... ich habe das gefuehl, dass sich alle 4 millionen menschen von toastbrot ernaehren.

ich fuehle mich hier nach wie vor total wohl in der familie.. echt super nette menschen... abends sitzen wir oft mit maryan (die tochter) und marc (der couchsurfer) vorm fernseher und unterhalten uns ein bisschen...

wenn alles gut geht und ich morgen wieder fit bin, kann ich mich ab morgen ...

... and is about 15 minutes from where we are staying. Once again the children had a great time playing in the sand and water, while we chatted and enjoyed the fantastic views of Rangitoto. We also had great fish/prawns and chips from the Fish Pot Cafe - good stuff :-)

Lucy and Daniel were then very pleased to see the return of Emily and Issy, who had been away for the weekend in the Coromandel.

... mountain ranges to fiords to volcanoes to rainforests. The Kiwis are so overwhelmingly friendly and generous that you could never feel alone or unhappy over here for long. There's something very familiar and reassuring about NZ that makes it very easy to adapt to living here. As beautiful and laid back as this country is I could never live here; it's just a bit too quiet and far from the 'real' world for me.

... Dublin. I decided to educate him on the difference in Scotch and irish whisky as I'd done to Sander in Cairns.

I remember little of the evening - I did remember calling Noel and Fionnuala to congratulate them on the arrival of their new baby daughter. Also remember leaving - at which stage only James from England and Orla remained. That's it.

Friendly reminderin'

As we awoke the next day I found myself reassuringly in the top bunk in one ...

... in and out of their mouth causing them to look quite scary and their goal of intimidation definitely gets across. The NZ rugby team, the All Blacks (which the Maori Looove), still performs a Haka at the beginning of the game. The dinner they served us was called a Hangi because the food was cooked in a pit in the earth that was then covered with dirt and slowly smoked for hours. Needless to say it was excellent and everyone, especially the backpackers, stuffed themselves into oblivion.

... don't embarrass easily, so falling on my **** is nothing. Had I managed to split my shorts displaying things that should be kept a mystery from the general public, maybe then I would have shed a single tear of repressed shame. Taking this a my cue to get the hell out of dodge I begin the long and calf crushing ascent, listen to me anyone would think that I was climbing Everest, ***********ing all those who had scored me so poorly for my acrobatics, sweat dripping off ...

... couple of minutes he tired of this and settled for positioning the band on the bridge of his nose, presumably so it couldn't slip down, and he wouldn't have to hold it in place with his teeth, so now's all's well in his world. Once the gym finally opened I was off, straight to the treadmill and into my own personal world, soul music playing full blast in my ears, sun shining outside, all's well in my world. When I looked around there ...

We arrived in Auckland on Tuesday after a wonderful weekend in Terigaul at Woodys wedding. It was great to see people from home again even if it was only for a short time. It made both of us a little home sick saying goodbye to them all again though. Our first port of call in Auckland was to visit Matts Uncle and Aunt who both seem really well and haven't changed that much in the 10 years ...

... of Piha
beach. It felt like he just pulled over off the side of the road
randomly and we walked down what I'd call "off the beaten path" right
into the woods, and emerged right into a fresh water stream carrying
all the black sand down ...