It's Thursday and we've just arrived in Auckland, on the north island of New Zealand. We're met by Jeremy Zinzan , the son of our dentist in London. It's a long story, but he did a wonderful job in organising this part of our trip. We have a great view overlooking Auckland harbour from the Westin Harbourside hotel. The evening has been spent walking around the jetties and quays and seeing the wide array of sailing and motor yachts from all over the world. Probably the most magnificent is Adele, a 180 foot yacht built in 2005 and based on the 1910 'J' boats 'Britannia' and 'Meteor', owned respectively by the Prince of Wales (later Edward VI) and Kaiser Wilhelm. It's available for charter. I told Glenna not to bother asking the rate.

Friday took us to the excellent Auckland Maritime Museum where for an extra NZ$10 you get to have a sail around the harbour in a 'scow', a historic 60' ketch common to New Zealand from the 1880's used as a cargo vessel. Bargain of the trip so far, though Robin was "invited" to help out as you can see. What a perfect day to see the harbour from the sea, with glorious sunshine and a light sea breeze. It reminded us of Sydney on a smaller scale - many inlets. A walk around town took us up to Albert Park - probably an extinct volcano given its shape - where there is a statue of Queen Victoria. It seems that there are vestigial reminders everywhere we go of the Empire. This is about the 5th statue of Queen Victoria we have seen, in the former colonies. It all makes Robin feel reassuringly British.

Another excellent dinner at the Harbourside Restaurant. I must say how impressive is the standard of NZ cuisine (John Dory on a pesto puree for me and Glenna had a local fish, the Hapuku, with cockles) and it goes without saying their wines are really fine. We had Craggy Ridge Chardonnay from Hawkes Bay. Tomorrow, we're off to Rotoroa.