Hi all, we finally arrived after a rather long flight consisting of 13 hours to Singapore and another 9 to Auckland. We did feel a bit rough, in fact I still do. Singapore was the best airport we have ever been in. It had a butterfly garden - yes in the terminal, a rather swish man made pond with giant Koi Carp, people handing out sweets and little cakes, others asking if you wanted assistance every time you stopped and looked blank (which, with the jet lag, was a lot of times in our case) and complimentary tea and coffee in the boarding lounge.

We headed straight to the hotel in the centre of Auckland for a quick nap. Although Auckland is not the capital city of New Zealand (that is Wellington) it is the largest city. In fact more people live in Auckland than the whole of the South Island. But, for the main city, it is still quite small. The population of Auckland is around 1.4 million just 0.3 million more than Birmingham. It has a rather quaint 1970s feel to it and everyone seems very friendly. We really like it.

To help you get a picture of NZ in your mind here a few more facts. Its land area is 268,680 sq. Kms, just a bit more than Great Britain (229,848 sq. Km). The length of NZ from tip of North Island to bottom of Stewart Island (at the bottom of the South Island) is 1600 Kms (measured as a gentle curve). Great Britain is about 1000 Kms from top to bottom measured as a straight line or 1400 Kms from Lands End to John O'Groats by road. The maximum width of NZ is 355 Kms. Great Britain has a maximum width of 480 Kms. Located in the South Island; the highest mountain in NZ is Aoraki Mount Cook at 3,754 metres. Great Britain's highest mountain is Ben Nevis at 1,344 metres and best of all the population of Great Britain is around 63.7 million and that of NZ is - can you guess- this is where I could do with a devise to hide the figure till you click on it but as I haven’t I suppose I am going to have to tell you- its 4.5 million and no I haven’t left of a digit it really is a minuscule 4.5.

Still feeling jet lagged on Saturday we decided the Hop On Hop Off bus sounded good. I was however a bit dubious when it said 'visit the 14 big (in capital letters) attractions of Auckland' and then detailed four gardens, the sea life aquarium, a building at the harbour, a shopping centre, the highest point in the city, an up-market village shopping area and the zoo. So instead we headed for the Sky tower, which standing at 328 metres is the highest man made structure in NZ and should, so they say, remain standing in the event of a magnitude 8.0 earthquake within 20 Km – good to know! It did have great views of Auckland but I was pleased when we returned to ground level.

Having mentioned earthquakes I should say that Auckland boasts 48 extinct volcanoes with hill like craters scattered all around the city. Most of the islands around Auckland are also extinct volcanoes. The youngest erupted around 600 years ago and was still active 300 years ago. Why so many volcanoes? Well Auckland sits on a hot spot fed by magma located 100 Kms below the surface.Hot field would be a better term as the spot covers an area of 350 sq. Kms. The existing 48 volcanoes are very unlikely to erupt again but apparently new ones can appear anywhere in the field as bits of magma break off and force their way to the surface.

Instead of the Hop On Hop Off bus we took the much cheaper local bus and visited the Auckland museum which had a rather eerie exhibition about Scott and his Antarctic exhibition and included his first class ticket to Christchurch which he obviously didn’t get to use. The local bus did a circuit around some of the suburbs of Auckland and Peter decided that this would be a better and cheaper way to see the city, so stay on we did, and sat a full hour on the bus, stopping every few minutes at bus stops.

For lunch we had grabbed a Sushi. I am rather partial to Sushi so Auckland is the best city for me as the amount of Sushi restaurants is amazing. They are everywhere. As we were traveling into the city from the airport I counted at least 10 and by lunchtime I had counted another 6.

Sunday we took a ferry to Davenport, a small suburb by the sea with cute buildings, lots of cafes and sandy beaches after which Peter took the helm of an authentic Americas Cup racing yacht around Aucklands harbour.