Got here in one piece !! nothing cool about it Jan, from mountain passes to six/ seven lanes but Squid knew where she was going.We spent a long time looking for the site, it was a first for us,I think I came off a lane too early as we left the bridge, however we are here, the campsite must have every camper in Auckland on it.

As I´m getting out of the van there are two couples sitting having a drink, they recognised us from Te Anau, I said to them this is cosy,hope you dont snore,they asked what part of England I´m from,eh!!! I´m SCOTTISH,we had a long chat, they were Australians and one of the women said she left Scotland when she was ten, she goes home every couple of years, SHE IS FROM BALLINGRY,what do you make of that.Her name is Bailley, mum´s name was Adamson, she has family in Crossgates who own a pig farm, what a small world.

We have to say goodbye to SQUID, the depot is in the city centre,it wasn´t as bad as I thought it would be, the hostel we booked into is just round the corner so we dropped our bags off first, I´ll be carrying them soon enough.

We spent a lovely day in the City Of Sails, the weather was fine and the harbour very busy, Tom would like this.We went up the SKY TOWER and came down in the lift as opposed to the Bungy Jump, some things I will not even try!! It felt strange not going back to wee SQUID, we had clocked up nearly 4,000 kilometers, she did us well.The room in the hostel is good, space, what is that? It is full of youngsters but that doesn´t bother me I´m well past that stage in life.

Next morning I post off a parcel with stuff that I´ve bought and stuff that I wont need, we have a bit of lunch then head out to the airport, it takes about an hour.

There is so much of New Zealand to see I´ll just have to come back. We are flying to Santiago with Lan Air, the flight is 11 and a half hours, we leave at 5.30pm on the 21st and land at 1.40pm on the 21st. talk about groundhog day,so off we go sad to leave but excited about the unknown.