Well, its been a long and slightly boring week. I'm still in Auckland but leaving the city tonight!! Yeah!!! Sunday was a beautiful day!! The sun was shining and it was really warm. I even had on shorts and a t-shirt. For all of you thinking big deal, its boiling in England, let me just remind you that its WINTER here!!!! I had a few jobs to do in the morning (book accomodation and stuff for when Mum and Andrew come out) but once that was done I had all afternoon to sit in the sun. Seeing as I have no friends at the moment, I went for a walk around the harbour on my own. I was trying to get away from all the tall buildings, they were blocking out the sun. I spent about 3 hours walking around and sitting in the sun, totally forgetting that I had no sunscreen on. Doh!! Monday was another gorgeous day so I decided to go sailing. I booked myself onto the public sailing of the Spirit of New Zealand which is a big old sailing boat which usually teaches kids to sail (outward bound type courses). I spent 4 1/2 hours aboard the ship sailing round the harbour with about 30/40 other people. It was fantastic but again I had forgotton the sunscreen!! Starting to resemble a tomato, I went back to the hostel. I got talking to the two girls (Lucy and Goerge) in my dorm and it turned out they were from Hexham. They invited me to the cinema so we had dinner and saw a movie. Lucy and George left the hostel on Tuesday so I'm back on my own and bored. The weather seems to have realised which season it is and has gone back to being cloudy, sunny, raining, windy. When they say the weather in NZ is changeable, they aren't kidding. For all those Aussies who told me that I'd freeze when I got here, you are wrong. Even on a cloudy day in Auckland, I'm still warmer than I was in Melbourne, Echuca and Canberra. I'll not brag too much though coz I've been told that Wellington is having bad weather. Good job I bought a new Gore tex jacket in the sales on Sunday!! I am now weather proof from the knees up (my jacket is quite long and I'm not exactly tall)! Out of pure boredom, I wandered off to Kelly Tarlton's underwater world. I arrived just intime to watch the dibers feeding the sharks in the shark tanks. One of the sharks took a fancy to one diver and started eating his flippers!! There is a little snow cat thing that drives you around the penguin enclosure, that was cool!! The weather on Wednesday was not great. I woke up, looked out of the window and thought crikey, its chucking it down, I'm not going out in that, weatherproof or not. So I went back to bed and didn't get up till mid afternoon. I did three weeks worth of laundry which kept me amused for a few hours. Thursday was a nicer day so I planned a trip to Waiheke Island which is 30 mins ferry ride form the city. I hadn't had breakfast (cereal bars don't count) so decided to grab something down at the wharf. On the way towards the coffe shop I had to pass an icecream shop and temptation proved too much to resist. You should have seen the size of the icecream I had for brunch!! It was two scoops (Hokey Pokey and Funky Monkey) and it was huge. I contemplated the best way to eat it without too much mess, then thought stuff it and dived in face first. By the time I'd demolished the cone, I had icecream all over my hands, all over my face and in my hair. Once on Waiheke, I caught the bus to Onetangi and walked along the beach. It was fairly warm so I went for a paddled in the ocean. I then caught a bus to Surfdale and walked along the bay to Blackpool beach and then back to the ferry. Today I have been trying to kill time waiting for my coach to Wellington. Checkout time was 10am and my coach leaves at 7.50pm. I spent the whole morning walking up and down Queen Street looking in book shops for the Carlos Spencer biography. Considering Kiwis are known for their love of rugby, its not easy to buy a players book. I can get any book I want about Jonny Wilkinson, Clive Woodward's book and the Martin Johnson story but a book about a Kiwi player? Not a cats chance in hell! No one stocks it! Had to make do with Justin Marshall's book which I got reduced from $50 to $14. Tomorrow I will wake up (if I get any sleep on the coach) in Wellington. Not only am I looking forward to the change of scenery but I'm really excited about the rugby. It should be a really good game between South Africa and New Zealand. I hope I have a good seat!!