We are back in Auckland and leave here this afternoon for our flight to Santiago in Chile but first an update on the last 2 weeks.

Spent a few days in Napier where we did an Art Deco tour and also a vineyeard tour. 4 vineyards each with 8 or more wines to taste so let just say it was a merry afternoon. Napier gets invaided by cruise ships a lot and on the others day its a very quiet place.

Next stop was Mt Manganui a beach town where most kiwi folk head to in the summer. The camp ground in the town can be booked up to 4 years in advance for the week between xmas and new year! Just chilled out for a few days as it was very hot.

We then headed up to Whitianga a very small beach town where at low tide you can walk out into the sea and collect shellfish for your dinner. We saw many families out doing this everynight.

Back into Auckland and had to stay 5 days as it was a holiday weekend so couldnt get accomodation at our next stop. Lucky for us there was a Chinese Lantern Festival on for 3 days with lots of massive lanterns in the park and also different performances from chinese people. Dancing, singing, puppets ect. Plus a street of food stalls...yummy.

Last stop was Paihia in the bay of island. We took a day trip to the most northen point in NZ called Cape Regina but the weather was bad and we didnt see much. The bus was a big converted truck so it could off road down a wee river and take us to massive sand dunes where we did some sandboarding. So much fun, a little scary but the driver made me champion as i travelled the furthest down the dunes. Sweeeet!

So here we are back in Auckland having been runnning about mad trying to organise everything before we leave this afternoon. We are sad to leave and def want to return here someday.

Sorry its very short blog but gotta get to the airport!
Next stop Chile whoop!