Has it really been five weeks since we picked up the campervan? Have we really being sharing shower facilities with skanky looking campers for five weeks? Have we really not seen telly for five weeks!?!?! It was thoughts like these that weighed heavy on our minds as we made our way to Auckland to drop the van off. We both definately had mixed emotions when saying goodbye to the van. I had really enjoyed driving again and loved the experience of living in a campervan but may not be in a massive hurry to do it again. For her part Rhiannon had begun by hating the van and then grew to love it, she looked very sad letting it go but in turn felt that it will now be nice to be able to go to the toilet in the night without having to don a head torch and brave the mosquitos.

But with a few final photos we bade it goodbye and headed for a hotel. Tiny and cheap the room may have been but it had a bed, a shower and a telly which was all we asked for. Although when you desperately want sleep don't book into a centrally located hotel at the weekend as you won't get any sleep until at least one in the morning. Oh well, it was cheap!

Auckland for those that don't know is by far New Zealand's biggest city (twice as populous as Christchurch and Wellington put together) and is in every way the capital except in name in much the same way that Sydney is what everyone really thinks the capital of Australia is. Auckland is in many ways a mini version of Sydney. It is built on a very nice harbour, it has a harbour bridge (which isn't as impressive and groans under the weight of traffic it takes) and erm well there are loads of other reasons probably.

We had three and half days here which is just aswell as we spent most of the first day on the internet posting photos and blogs and then retired to the room to watch telly.

On our first proper day in the city we decided to religiously follow the Lonely Planet's suggested route and headed to the Museum straight off which is in the Domain, basically a big park. A very good museum it was too with loads on New Zealands history and a lot on New Zealand's efforts in all of the wars it has taken part in which was quite moving.

Next up was Sky Tower which at 328m tall is a touch higher than the Eiffel Tower and is the tallest building in the southern hemeshere apparently. We went as high as you could go up it which is about 210m and you do get fantastic panoramic views over the whole of the city. Some of the floor you walk on is glass which can be a bit disorientating and although then signs say it is as thick as the concrete and is paerfectly safe, that feels a bit hard to believe when all you can see below your feet is the ground (a long way away).

You can do a jump off the Sky Tower which isn't a bungee and looks like more of a skydive. With our jumping/diving activities still fresh in the memories we watched people doing it and declared it a "piece of piss" and didn't bother. The more photos onto the blog and suddenly the time had flown by, it really did take ages getting them on there so we are very glad people are looking at them. Many thanks.

Another day and more sights to see, this time it was Kelly Tartons Antartic Adventure which is an aquarium with two big sights to see. The first is a replicar of Captain Scotts Antartic hut which he used when heading out on his doomed mission. There was lots of information on this, all touched with a hint of bitterness that he wasn't actually the first to make it there. The Norweigen Admusen is barely mentioned except to say he only did it for personal glory so travelled light and only mentioned he was going at the last minute where as Scott went for scientific exploration and took all sorts with him, so basically the sly old Norweigen just didn't play fair.

The second big thing is a large colony of penguins kept there in an area designed to replicate Antartic conditions. There were loads of them waddling about the place, diving and swimming and coming right to the window to look at us, viewers could get a snowcat around the outside which took eight minutes and was at about water level so you got great views. As you can imagine Rhiannon absolutely loved it so much so that she actually turned down a small child's request to move and let him sit by the window "penguins are my favourite" she told little Billy who sat grumpily for the rest of the trip. If you are ever in Auckland this place is was well worth a visit. Unless you hate penguins.

Finishing the day with a stroll around the harbour and a nice meal to mark our last night in New Zealand (both having lamb - lovely). Then our last day in NZ. We fly out at night (in about six hours time, still time then to catch a ferry to Rangitoto Island and walk up the volcano (280m), a tiring walk that brought to mind the quote: "Steep? It's effing vertical". The volcano only came into existance 600 years ago when it rose from the depths Godzilla like spewing lava everywhere. It's now considered extinct but the Auckland volcano plain (50 volcanos) isn't and at some point some more are expected to rise up from the sea which would no doubt wreck a few places close by!

And that's it for New Zealand. We'll probably both post blogs with our thoughts on the place, but it's been great. Now for a little bit of a culture shift as we fly to Hanoi to begin three and a half months in South East Asia. It's not easy this travelling lark I can tell you. Enjoy work!