17/7/9 Paihia back to Auckland

We were booked onto a Te Waka tour of the bay which is a three hour trip but woke to see pouring rain. We had breakfast at the place we were meeting Nick the fella taking us on the trip. He arrived and said the trip was cancelled as noone would enjoy it in the foul weather much to Lizzies relief as she was already pretty cold. We went to the jetty to get our money refunded and then mooched about the shops for a while. Phil had another haircut and we went back to the hostel to try and catch up with the blog a bit...it is really hard to motivate yourselves to write the blog as it takes you away from the fun of travelling but we spent the nest few hours updating as far as South America was concerned. At about 2.30 we got on the coach back to Auckland and watched a film on the 4 hour drive back to town. When we got back our ticket guy Thomas wasn't there and so his boss called him and it does seem we have tickets but under the name Dave and his wife !!! Bit of a worry...we will double check tomorrow again. We went for a fantastic chinese meal around the corner from the hostel which would have fed a family of four and then went to bed.

18/7/9 Auckland

We were up and about by 9am and walked through Albert Park past Auckland university and through the domain (city main park) along lovers lane (ahhhh) past the museum into Parnell where the Kiwi bus office is . We sorted our itinerary with the girls in the office and grabbed a sandwich before heading back into town towards Waitemata Harbour. we shopped for gear for the rugby and bought two wooly All Blacks hats hoping we did have tickets. We went to Auckland Skytower which is the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere to try and get tickets to see French and Saunders who are here aon tour. We went into the casino and decided to have a go at Roulette. We won $100 much to Lizzies delight and left to get ready for the rugby. We went to the bar to meet Thomas and we were really pleased when he handed over two tickets for the game...yeah. We went to call Lizzies Mum to brag about the tickets and later realised that it must have been really early in the morning...sorry folks. We returned to the bar where we had our faces painted and had a barbecue tea before gettingo n the coach to the ground. We were cutting a bit fine to make it but got to the seats as the Australian anthem was finishing. The NZ anthem started but in front of us were two yound very drunk Aussia lads singing loudly over it so we didn't hear much. They managed to shout over the Haka too which was a bit annoying but they soon shut up when they started to lose the game!!! It was very exciting as the All Blacks held on at the end to win despite being the underdogs. After a great night we returned to the hostel and decided to have anothe go at Roulette as we'd had a bit of luck earlier on. We went on a couple of tables and our lucky streak continued and we came out with $500....yeah!!! That nicely paid for our rugby tickets and a bit more. It was 3am by the time we left the casino but it was great fun and really busy after the game.

19/7/9 Auckland

Phil woke early to call Tony (Matthews) a mechanic from Worcester ambulance station who emigrated with his family to NZ three years ago. They live in Howick a suburb of Auckland and we arranged to meet Tony at 3pm. We had a pretty lazy morning and went for some pretty awful lunch befroe going to the Sky Tower (328m). We couldn't resist a return to the roulette table for another dabble but ended up losing a bit of our winnings so we called it a day. Our temporary addiction to gambling was over and we were still very much in profit I am pleased to say. We went up the many floors to the sky deck where floor to ceiling windows give you 360 degree views of the city. Pretty fantastic views over the harbour and all the volcanic hills around the city. We then went off to meet up with Tony who picked us up at the harbour for a Tiki tour en route to his home in Howick. He stopped at Bastion point for a lovely lookout over the city and then drove us along the coast through Hobson bay, Mission bay and to Mount Wellington. It is one of 70 dormant volcanoes round the city and gives you an elevated view accross Auckland. Wherever he drove we could see lovely ocean views and we passed many beaches with access to free public barbecues!! We saw Half moon bay, Buckland beach and Eastern beach before going to meet Ann and the girls Eleanor and Jodie back at the house. We had a really lovely chilled evening catching up with all their news and the two boys talking ambulance news/gossip. We had a Chinese meal and a couple of drinks with them and felt really welcome. They have no regrets about emigrating and they are very happy with life in NZ. It is just so stress free here we can see why so many people emigrate. It is just so lovely and there are mountains, lakes, beaches and just no traffic, litter or noise...fantastic!!! Tony took us back to town but we first called into his ambulance station which is immaculate and really lovely. the few ambulance staff we met were really friendly and they told us that they have 38 vehicles covering Auckland over night...just like Worcester!!! Then we went up One Tree Hill (U2 fans may recognise that) and had a great view of the city skyline at night. After a really lovely evening we went off to bed.

Thanks to Tony and Ann for a really relaxing night., it was great.

20/7/9 Auckland

After a bit of a lie in we walked to the museum through the domain and arrived as it opened. We looked around for a couple of hours before watching a Maori cultural show. The Maoris danced and sang on stage and Liz went up and tried to dance with Poi which are small balls on string the ladies make look really easy. it was like the genration game...Liz was rubbish. We carried on looking round the museum but it is really amazing and huge. We spent 6 hours there and probably only saw half of whats there. There are loads of Maori and Polynesian artefacts, a volcanic exhibition, natural history and a war memorial as well as many other exhibitions. It is fantastic and we could have stayed for hours or filled another day. When we finally tore ourselves away from the museum we went to the harbour for some tea at an Irish bar . We ordered lamb shanks and they were huge and really delicious. We were stuffed after eating them all and went back to the hostel to carry on with the blog again, do our laundry and pack ready for leaving the next day.