After a 7 hour delay at Wellington Airport, we eventually made it to Auckland, our final destination in NZ, to visit family.As we were so late we missed our dinner at Graham's cousin's house, and only just made it to Auckland airport before Graham's Auntie Christine did, and she was arriving home from England!

The next day we borrowed Graham's Auntie's car and went exploring some of the areas we had not seen on our previous visit to Auckland.It was a beautiful sunny day, so we took the SH1 north from Howick, where we were staying, up to Long Bay Regional Park.We had a walk along the beach and in the park, and then took Beach Road, which brought us south along the coast through the North Shore district of Auckland.We stopped briefly in Torbay and at Waiake Beach, then at Brown's Beach, where there is a nice little shopping area by the beach.It was so warm I had an ice cream there!We then continued down to Milford Reserve and beach for another quick walk.We really liked the North Shore district, with its combination of beaches, parks and hills; it was so beautiful, especially on this sunny day.Finally we drove around Lake Pupuke then back to the SH1, which brought us back over the Harbour Bridge and gave us some fantastic views of the city and harbour, which I tried to capture whilst we were driving, but that proved to be rather tricky!

That evening we went, with Christine and Arthur, for our postponed dinner with Marion and Roger, in Farm Cove.It was great to see the family again after 2 years, and we had a fantastic dinner, washed down with much wine and Dramduie!We also met the 2 new editions to the family: Star and Saxon, their giant cats!

The next day the weather was drizzly and dull, so Christine and Arthur took us on a Tiki tour south of Howick.We headed down the east coast and stopped off in Whitford at a shop called Prenzel, which sold speciality liquors and olive oils, etc.We tasted a few liquors (which were very nice) and then continued on to Pine Harbour.There were great views here, and some stunning boats, but not really the weather for a walk so we drove to Maraetai and went for coffees and cakes/scones at Bach'nCafe.These were lovely and we were soon very full!We then drove to Umupuai and finally to Clevedon, before heading back to Howick.Again we had dinner with all of the family, and then Skyped Graham's Mum and step Dad too, so there were 8 of us - virtually that is!

So it was time for us to say goodbye to both family and New Zealand.We have had a great 5 weeks exploring NZ and found it to be as beautiful and friendly as we remembered from our previous visit.We were sad to be saying goodbye to both family and the country and hope to be back there soon...

But, the journey must go on, and now we are in Fiji, for 2 weeks of relaxing on the beach and by the pool.

Maggie x