After our adventures in Christchurch we headed to Hamilton, a town in the North Island, about an hour and a halfs drive from Auckland, to meet up with another old friend of Chris's. Ben and Sian were originally travelling like ourselves, but after 3 months on the road decided that they would settle in NZ, as old Blighty just didn't hold any attraction any longer. It was great being with people who knew the local area and we explored part of the east coast of the North Island with them. Unfortunatley for Carol this also meant an up hill trek, to the top of Mount Munganuhi (sorry for the spelling!), but what a view of the surrounding coastline when at the top. It also felt very civilised to chill out on the promenade watching life go by, with a glass of cold beer in your hand. Next stop was Auckland. Whilst this is the Capital City, it can't compare to London or some of the bigger capitals we have visited on our travels. Auckland is home to about a third of the entire population of NZ. Correspondingly all the other New Zealanders refer to Aucklanders as JAFA's (Just Another F****ng Aucklander) ! Even with 1.5 million people in residence around Auckland there was no sense of chaos that we have felt elsewhere, despite the big city skyscrapers and the imposing Sky Tower, which at 328m (1,100ft) makes it the tallest building in the southern hemisphere. As with everything else in NZ, people love to throw themselves off high things and teh Sky Tower was no exception. We took a trip up the tower to get a great view of the city. One of the attractions is a tethered bungy descent from the tower. However, for Chris it was a bit tame after the Queenstown bungy, but the thought of jumping from the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere was tempting!. Parts of the viewing platform have a glass floor allowing you to see right down to ground level. It was funny to see the number of people who came to an abrupt halt when they were walking around and suddenly realise they were about to step onto the glass floor and see all the way down. Whilst some of our time here was spent organising onward journeys and getting ourselves together we did get the chance to take a harbour cruise and visit Devonport, across the bay. The harbour cruise took us to have a look at the boats in the enormous marina that nestles on the banks of the water. Having now got the bug for sailing we were very impressed and drooling over the million pound yachts, that looked like real mean machines in comparison to the 30 footer we trained on. They also had some of the previous winners on the Americas Sailing Cup on show on the harbour side, which were amazing, though they were so sleek and streamlined that they didn't look like they could stand up to any major waves. Devonport is s small town wich is nestled around two extinct volcanic peaks, which were used as high ground protection in the war. It was possible to trek to the top of each volcano and take a peak at the turrets, cannons and bunkers that are still in evidence from earlier days. We also took a trip to the local beach which was pretty and fairly unpopulated. The last journey we have made in NZ is to visit a friend, who is working as a Dive Instructor in the Poor Knights Islands in the north which is one of the best dive sites in the worldd. We originally met Claire in Venezuela and it was great to catch up on all the things we have both done over the last 5 months, since we parted. NZ has gone so quickly for both of us and we now prepare for another flight and another country tomorrow.