Friday 26th February

This morning we arrived in Auckland at about 6.30 & walked off at 8.45.
We decided to take a ferry to & a tour of Devonport, is a suburb across the harbour from the city. The ferry took about 20 minutes & the bus tour was around the area including a climb up 2 extinct volcanoes which had housed gun batteries to protect the harbour mouth. A highlight for d*** was seeing an 8 inch disappearing gun from the UK, installed in the 1880s when a Russian invasion was feared. Queenscliff had had similar ones installed but they were all removed. The views across the harbour to the city & out to the neighbouring islands were quite stunning & Devonport, formerly a working class area for dockyard workers, is now a very desirable & expensive commuter area. The shops reminded us of Portsea in Victoria with many boutique types in the higher price bracket.

After returning to Auckland & the ship for lunch we walked back into town & caught an Inner City Circle bus which took us around the suburbs. The majority of the older houses from the 1880s were in wood & many still exist being very similar to those in parts of Melbourne & Perth. The centre is dominated by tower blocks of offices & construction is still going on which left us with the impression that the city looks very prosperous & it looks a fine place to live & work.

We left Auckland at about 8.30pm & were on our way west towards the Bay of islands for our next stop.