Mt Roskill Motor Inn Auckland

... for $75 (£37); we were out of there within 2 hours!! Had a spot of lunch in the van, and then travelled into the centre of Auckland. First time we have experienced having to pay to park, extortionate rates, cost $1 per hour (£0.50p)!! Walked around the centre and visited the Sky Tower. Saw a few people jump off with the bungee, but failed to capture them on camera – gutted!! This is a really nice city, very laid back and there is no hustle and bustle!! Had a beer in an Irish ...

... like one of the Gremlins. But apparently it's a real menace and has the slightly better nick-name 'Rock Snot' in most places. It attaches itself to rocks and leaves a trail of toilet-tissue looking stuff off the side and ruins the rivers and lakes. So Say No to Didymo! As our bumper sticker says. We still found it hard to take against this poor, unassuming stuff with it's fantastic name. But then we're not rocks. And we're sure not in a river neither. Say no to Didymo. Just ...

... of LL Cool J!!! Liz and Jared fixed us up – the van is very
cool and has a name: Ophicious. Mike got first driving duties and he
did great – luckily our van comes equipped with a GPS which got us
to the BB we will be staying at for the weekend – the Great
Ponsonby.
The innkeeper Gerry greets us warmly and quickly introduces us to
the place, gets us drinks and begins ...

... Tank, Sonny, and Thomas, are fun, loving, and sweet little dogs. They are constant entertainment! I mailed some stuff home from the post office, which is really expensive, and enjoyed another bench conversation with Kelley and Isla before busing back up to my aunt's friends place outside of Auckland. The next day, I headed to the airport, and was on my way to Melbourne, Australia!

The first leg and month of my journey is over, and I ...

... species of fern. Needless to say I was very excited. To summarise the experience: there were lots of ferns.

We took the bus back to the skytower and went to our car to drive back to Hamilton. Auckland isn't the most attractive city with marginally little to do. It lacked a certain character but the fact that there were lots of people and activity did make it different to many places in New Zealand.

... along the way and finally arrived at the dullest hostel on earth. So dull we had to go out and test some more of the local wine in the bar next door (well it has to be done). Slightly drunken we sat on the floor of our room playing sh*thead (card game for the oldies reading this). The next day we headed off to swim with dolphins (the main attraction of Kaikora). After getting kitted up in our thick cold water wetsuits we headed off on the boat. The good news was the ...

... the Maori land and sea gods fought over "split apple rock" before it was split, and in the end splitting it! hence the name. After a half hour journey, we were dropped off in the beautiful Torrent Bay, literally!! We had to wade through the sea to get to the beach. From there, we set off on a two and half hour walk along the Able Tasman track to get to Watering Cove Beach for our pack lunch and to meet up with our kayaking guide, which we managed. After lunch and a quick safety briefing ...

... years of erosion to produce the current coastline we see today. We took a short detour into a cave in one of the cliffs, and then before long we arrived at Cathedral Cove. We beached our kayaks and our guide took orders for coffee. One of the bonuses of this tour is they make coffee for everyone at Cathedral Cove. After putting in my order, Nina and I went for a swim. The water was quite cool from my perspective, but Nina said it was ...

... dia no existeix. Per canvis d' horaris... No dormo gaire durant el viatge. No hi ha gaire espai entre un seient i l'altre. Sortosament hi ha una pantalleta amb jocs i també pots veure pel.lícules... estarem entretingudes les 13h de vol. Dijous XXIX - I - MMIX Arribarem a l'aeroport d'Auckland aproximadament a les 3.45am del 29/01/2009. Passarem els diversos controls, sort que hem deixat el poc menjar que duiem a l'avió... :) Ens ...

... in NZ and then it's on the plane to another great harbour city, Sydney. It's been as much fun as last time and there are still bits we haven't seen, so we'll be back.


Meantime it is now exactly one year since our first arrival in NZ, so our hostel discount cards have run out and it is definitely time to go! Back in the UK on 16th March and hope to see you soon. Next despatch from Sydney; can we beat the Global Challenge yachts to Darling Harbour?