Hit the harbour for 10am to catch the ferry to Devonport. A short journey later we had arrived safe and well and met our wee van driver, Steve. Great chap. Absolutely loves the bonnie Scots. Basically pimped out his sons to us so, that's always an option. Could afford us sweet little lives in the picture perfect town. According to Steve everyone knows everyone here and it takes him an hour and a half to buy a loaf of bread in the supermarket. I believe this to be true but I also believe Steve's quite the talker so I'm not sure that's so much an accurate representation of the size/closeness of the place. Devonport was originally named Flagship and was used for military purposes, evidence of this is still dotted about everywhere so we were given a bit of a history lesson. We were taken up North Head volcano. Rhona and I got out here and had an hour to explore. Watched a wee video about the history of the place...to sum up there appeared to be alot of "suspected attacks" and a big strumash but nothing really much went down here. Sat on the lush grass and ate some lunch looking out over Cheltenham beach...looks nice and we decide later we shall venture there. Steve comes back to pick us up...gives us jip for not being at our agreed point but we had completely lost track of time. All in good banter though. Steve's our pal. Went to Mount Victoria and had a "goof off" on Steve's command....this is what he refers to jumping pictures as. After a few attempts he told us our jumps were rubbish and the "goof off" was cancelled. All the kids here start to learn to sail at age 9. Most of them go on to be skippers or to deliver boats. Steve's been racing boats all his life, him and all his family are in this line of work. Devonport is such a quaint little town, it would be a grand place to retire to. There are lots of expensive Edwardian style houses which line the shore and the sweet little streets. Casual cafes and art exhibitions are dotted about the place. After a few hours Steve drops us off. He informs us of a chocolate factory up the road that gives out free samples...we go there. Hazelnet truffle that could melt away your worries. Walk to Cheltenham beach and both fall asleep next to the crystal waters. Caught the ferry back to Auckland at 5pm and picked up stuff from the supermarket to make dinner. Cooked up a storm and spent the evening chilling out. Readying to head North on the Kiwi Experience tomorrow.

Kate x