At Auckland airport there are two main options for getting to town; taxi or minivan. We opted for the latter with the driver dropping us at the doors of the hostel after a 20 min journey.

We had soon checked in our room; a double with ensuite in the town's YHA hostel which was well located and reasonably priced compared to many other options. That first day can be summarised as a "getting to know the place" with a little reccie of the surrounding area. After some dinner and drinks, we headed back to the room.

Perhaps it was a combination of tiredness and jet lag which meant we were woken from a near coma like state at 10:30am by the maid/ cleaner collecting rubbish from the rooms. Had she not knocked on the door we would have probably slept through the whole day.

It wasn't long before we were use to the city's roads and the hostel (never stayed in one before). Although not New Zealand's capital, Auckland is the largest city with 1.3 million inhabitants. We found a fair bit to do around the city and ventured around with relative ease. There is a City Link bus service that does a contiunuos circuit around the city. We chose to walk to many places and use the bus for others, if they were a little further afield.

One day we decided to travel to a part of town called Parnell which sounded like it was filled with stylish shops and cool cafes. The leaflet we picked up was right. Despite it being winter in NZ, it was just about warm enough for us to enjoy an Italian lunch in a courtyard just off the main street (Non Solo Pizza; very good). We also went into the quaint little chocolate shop to purchase some chocolates but instead came out with a bag of flavoured rock!!

We also ventured to another part of town called Ponsonby, which was also a worthwhile stop. Not far was the Auckland Museum that we visited during the morning. It was good value for money with a traditional Maori show (an additional cost) that was worth seeing. On the way back to the hostel, we stopped at Starbucks for a coffee and to use their wifi/ Internet. In usual Starbucks fashion they wanted to charge over the odds for the wifi so we went to another coffee shop chain (Esquires) that served equally good coffee, was cheaper and had free wifi. This soon became our second home.

Other memories from the Auckland visit were the comedy club that we went to on Queen Street. Ten comedians for ten bucks (about £5) made a fun evening. We sat at the front with an American and a couple of Kiwis (the people......not the bird or the fruit....that would have been strange!!!). It was interesting to see the different acts and the jokes that different nationalities found funny. One thing was for sure, the compare for the evening was brilliant (we all agreed on that).

Lisa located the downtown Westfield shopping mall, which wasn't a patch on it's London branch. After that visit, we stopped for a late lunch/early dinner consisting of a cheese platter and crackers and a bottle of wine at a small Italian bistro called Bruschetteria at Elliott Stables (well worth a visit if you want to chill). This is a converted stable area in the centre of town. Thankfully it was undercover as it was raining.

Also in the centre of the city is the well known Sky Tower which you can use as a good viewing point, you can bungy from or walk around a one metre wide ledge, near the top, clipped to a safety harness. We chose the viewing gallery as you can't take a camera onto the ledge. From the tower, you can see an area called Devonport, which is accessible by ferry. A couple of days later, we did just this. Devonport was a pleasant walk with the aide of a map from the i-site tourist office. After a couple of hours, we grabbed fish n chips which was fantastic. It was served to the table opened on paper (no plate). It was delicious. We then headed back, in darkness, to the small ferry teminal and onwards to the hostel.

It was in the YHA that we met Chris Evans (not THE Chris Evans but a carpenter from England) and a girl called Suzanne who had been travelling for the best part of a year. They had met at the airport. We had talked about different ways to travel NZ but opted for the "Magic Bus". This is a service that has predefined routes on the North and South Island. You just need to give 24 hours notice to guarantee a seat on the bus. The annual ticket price should have been around NZ$1,000 but we got it for just NZ$349 each as they were running a winter deal. We asked so many questions when we booked the tickets that the YHA staff probably felt like they were being interogated by the police. The deal was too good to be true!!! We were chatting to Chris and Suzanne for three hours during which time Lisa was running to and from the laundry room while Mark was trying to get the laptop to work but to no avail. The screen didn't seem to be working.......this was defintely the case after Mark slammed it shut!!!! It was then he announced he was going to bed. Fortunately he did as we didn't realise it was 3am!!!!!

In keeping with most evenings, our last night consisted of hunting the nightlife, which seemed quite low key for such a large city. At the harbour area, we drank in a bar with just four people in.....we were two of them!!! After a couple of drinks we headed back to the room in the rain packed our last bits, and got some sleep before getting the Magic Bus early the next morning to Rotorua. We seemed to be travelling a little lighter now and realised this was solely down to Auckland sucking the cash from our wallets......this country is pretty expensive with an exchange rate of about 2 to 1.

Rotorua, the home of the thermal hot springs and mud pools, was unlikely to be any cheaper. The next installment to follow.