Kia Ora! Well at long last our cards have arrived, so as of tomorrow, the adventure continues! Not that the last 10 days have been wasted, simply different. Was really nice just to kick back and relax for couple of days. Malcolm and Anita have been great (Anita being my Dads Cousin; who kindly agreed to put us up for a couple of nights, which then stretched to 10) and really made us feel at home. In return, we have made numerous raids on the fridge and hogged the remote. On our first day after arrival we took a trip to the top of One Tree Hill, a symbol of Maori history, sadly these days it may as well be called No Tree Hill after the tree was cut down by a Maori activist for reasons no one is sure of. It was replaced for a while but this tree was later cut down a replaced with a swingball, which unsurprisingly was removed as well. Later that day we tasted our first Southern Hemisphere BBQ, and it certainly beat the spaghetti on toast we had suffered the night before. The next day was of course my birthday as many of remembered and I thank you all for the messages, I have noted those who didn’t wish me a Happy Birthday and they will be dealt with in due course! Was taken for an all you can eat Chinese, which I took as something of a challenge, and led to a short lay down to recover. Stayed up to watch the footy on TV that night, and was relieved to see Fulham finally get a decent result. This is where our days became increasingly lazier and we did very little. It is no surprise then that after a few days, we did begin to get itchy feet (Anita thinks this might be ringworm in my case but I assure her its simply a case of cut-up mosquito bites, having played football on the Fijian beaches). Took one trip into downtown Auckland, and made the slightly silly mistake of missing the last bus home, which meant a night in town with very limited funds and no where to go, but with our very, very sneaky skills we got into a hostel for a night free of charge. Once we were safely home we borrowed some money and headed into Auckland for a couple of nights to do it properly. Not much to do during the day, except shop or go to the harbours. We decided to take a trip to Devonport, which even though its only 10 minutes from Auckland, is completely different. Has a small seaside feel about it. After Matt had been accused of book theft by a short bald Kiwi, we had some lunch and went for a walk. We took a trip up a small volcano, which I’d love to say had a pit of boiling lava in the middle which erupted whilst we were up there, resulting in an Indiana Jones style escape, but this, however, would be a lie, and instead we sat on a bench whilst recovering from the 2 minute climb and looked out across the Auckland skyline. As soon as night came it was a different story though and we had plenty of places to go, we spent most of the night in the Globe bar which was attached to hostel we were staying in, which made getting to bed a lot easier then most nights out! Spent Sunday with Keith (Malcolm and Anita’s son) and we simply relaxed with a few beers and watched a few films. That is pretty much that as far as NZ is concerned so far, but we’ve got a lot planned for the rest of our stay here, so look out for next update as it promises to include a lot of goings on. Also a quick Happy Birthday to my Mum, she’s just turn 21 for the 30th year running (you do the Maths), and I hope she enjoys any surprises she may get. Andy (and Matt)