The weather was stunning today, sunny and warm. We spent a leisurely morning enjoying beautiful Edenhouse and our delightful cottage. After a delicious breakfast in the main lodge we had a long walk round the grounds enjoying the spectacular views. As we walked on the lower levels we spotted four ducks in the distance grubbing around under the trees. It seems that at about the same moment they also spied us! They came waddling towards us as fast as their legs could go and from then on they were our constant companions. They followed us here, there and everywhere quacking loudly and making it very clear that the only useful type of human being was one with food in hand! When we got back to our cottage Simon rewarded their persistence with a shortbread cookie. Lucky old ducks!!

Around lunch time we had to say goodbye to Edenhouse and our wonderful hosts, Peter and Bobbie but, as we have said already so many times on this trip, we will be back!! We drove to Nelson airport and only just made it in time to check in 30 minutes before the flight. We were soon airborne and, because the day was so clear, we had wonderful views of the Marlborough Sounds as we moved away from the South Island. We have had such wonderful times in the South Island over the past few weeks and we felt really sad to leave. However, our trip is not over yet and we still have plenty of good times to come in the North Island. Besides, as you already know, South Island, we WILL be back!!!

We arrived more or less on time in Auckland but had a bit of a panic and delay as one of our bags didn't come through. Luckily it did turn up eventually as when someone went to look they found it was still sitting outside on the trolley!

Back at the Sky City Grand for our second visit we were soon settled into our room. For the evening we had booked a table in 'dine' the Peter Gordon restaurant on the ground floor of the hotel. It was busy and buzzing. We decided to opt for the degustation menu with matched wines. It was a delicious meal, very expensive but a lovely treat. We had a very efficient young, French waiter attending to us for the evening. Naturally he is hoping that France will win tomorrow but, we shall see and we definitely have our eye on Wales!