Hello from Auckland., the City of Sails

We had a really good flight over here - on time, which is unusual for South America, at least one thing has been on time!! We landed at 3.45am local time and had to wait until 6am for a bus to take us into the city.

We found a hostel and got on a free tour of the city, the tour was only free as by the end of it the bus company had try to sell us tickets on their bus company to travel NZ. As we have a camper we had to politely decline.

Auckland seemed quite small at first, the city center is quite small, but because of where it is built the urban sprawl out and around the city is huge!! It is built on loads of volcanoes, most are extinct, but in the bay there is one on an island that is only 600years old! Our tour took us to see alot of the sights in and around the city - we started off at the Sky Tower, it dominates Aucklands skyline and is the highest building in the southern hemisphere, and yes you can jump off it!!

We crossed over the harbour bridge to see a posh area and then taken to some of the beaches - on the way to mission beach our guide pointed out Graham Henry house, the week before they left for RWC he came out and chatted to a group - lots of banter from some English lads!!

We went up the citys largest volcano on the mainland Mt Eden, it gave a great vista of the city and out towards One Tree Hill. Mt Eden is very sacred to the Maori Culture and so nobody is allowed into the cone, it has been extinct for many years. This was also the site of a very impressive April fools stunt; a group of students from the local Uni filled the cone with a load of old tyres and petrol and set it alight. This was follwed by a call to local radio, "oh my god, Mt Eden is erupting." More than 3000 people were evacuated, the police were too scared to go check it out, it was only when someone realised the date that they worked it out. The perpetrators were never found - a good job the local Maori chief wanted them to hang as punishment!! They are now folklore heroes.

We had heavy rain and bright sunshine yesterday, the weather changes so quickly, even more so than the lake district in springtime. When it was sunny the sea was a beautiful shade of blue, we are looking forward to seeing many more stunning places in NZ.

We went to the top of the Sky Tower for sun-set and to see the city light up at night, it was well worth it. After this we were so tired we had to go to bed - the change in time had thrown us out of sync completely so it was bed at 8.00pm!!

After a lovely long sleep we woke to blue clear skies, i wonder how long that will last!! We pick up our campervan tomorrow and head north - we cant wait.

Hope everyone is well. Keep in touch

A&S xxxx