Well Auckland has been amazing. We arrived at our Nomads hostel mid afternoon on Tuesday 11th, and went straight to meet our Huddersfield boys, Tom and Ted, who were in the same hostel. We went for a walk down by the harbour and it just so happened to be happy hour so had a couple of ciders in the sun and a catch up (we left the boys in Queenstown so hadn't seen them for two weeks). We went back to the hostel for a bit to get freshened up, then had a couple of $1 slices of pizza in the rooftop bar and then headed to a couple of bars after that.

The next morning we'd booked to do a wine tour on Waiheke island, which we had to get the ferry over to. We were greeted by the tour bus at the other end which took us to our first vineyard. We tasted a couple of wines and had a lovely lunch overlooking the vineyard. We went to a couple of wineries and also a place where they made olive oil, where we got to try a few different oils and learnt how it was made.

The last one we visited was set up on a hill, with incredible views of the water and city. It was such a nice day that we decided to stay there for a while, instead of heading back to the city centre, so we treated ourselves to more wine and some food platters to share. We were terrible backpackers that day, but it's nice to have a treat now and again.

Tom and Ted's friend Christopher (aka Bonnie), from back home, had taken time off work to come with us for the day, so we ended up staying out late again & going to a few bars (once we finally decided to get the ferry back to the city).

The next day Bonnie took us for a drive around Auckland; stopping for breakfast, and then at the beach for a sunbathe, and then to a coffee shop for a pot of tea and a few games of cards. In the evening we had planned to go and watch a film at the cinema, but we got there a bit late and there weren't many showings, so ended up going for a walk around down by the ferry dock to look at all the awesome boats, had a little play in the park and stopped in a bar for a drink (a soft drink this time). It was another awesome day. We've had so much fun in Auckland.

Sadly, we then had to leave Tom & Ted as we left for the Bay of Islands bright and early this morning. We're here for four days and are expecting a cyclone to hit today! We've booked a fishing trip for Monday morning, so we're hoping it will have passed through by then. We're currently curled up on the sofa watching Cool Runnings because the weather is a bit miserable, but it does feel good to relax after a busy few days!