Day 14 Our first full day in Auckland, and with a week here, we have plenty of time to explore and do what we want to do, so we make today a 'familiarisation day' and take a bus into Auckland from Northcote and have a wander round at leisure, from one end of the shopping district on Queens Street by the Harbour to the other. The Fan Zone in Auckland is set up in Queens Wharf, over looking the harbour, and we spend some time seeing what is on offer. This is ...

Day 13 We wake up this morning in a state of confusion the clocks went forward last night, but did our phones adjust automatically? We are booked onto the Overlander train, leaving Wellington at 0725, and we have to check in at 0700. The alarm goes off and after some panic, we realise that it is only 5am, so I turn it off and set it again for another hour. It doesn't go off second time round and I wake up at 0615, run round the hotel room getting ready and we...

Day 12 Today in Wellington is our tourist day. We get out of the hotel reasonably early, wanting to make the most of the time we have, and have planned a rough guide to what we want to see and do today. We start by walking down Willis Street towards the Cable Car Street, stopping at a few shops along the way, and get to the Cable Car Station at about 11am. A return trip is $6, and you are taken from the shopping district up to the botanical gardens at the to...

Day 11 We leave the hotel this morning at about ten, nice and leisurely. Today is our shopping day in Wellington, we have the game tonight, and tomorrow we will do the touristy bits. For breakfast, a bargain, $6 full breakfast at Murphy's. I'm not sure what it is with all the Irish bars here in Wellington. After walking round for a short while, it's apparent that Wellington is a very different prospect to Nelson. It's a big city, sprawling off in a number of...

Day 10 A reasonably early start today, as once again, we have a travel day, this one shouldn't be too bad though, once we get into town, we have about 2 - 3 hours on a bus to Picton ,and then get the Interislander ferry across the Cook Strait to Wellington. The bus trip flies past, mostly because I manage to sleep through the majority of it, but I think because it's a familiar trip, basically the reverse of what we did coming into Nelson a few days ago, excep...