By the time we had packed up and grabbed some breakfast at our favourite cafe on the wharf (especially favourite because it serves the only decent bacon we have come across in New Zealand, ie nice meaty back bacon instead of that crispy American style stuff!!), we were already running a bit late. However, we were determined to fit in everything we had planned for the day and started by getting the ferry over to Russell, just across the water. This is a very quain...

Luckily the rain had stopped this morning and the sun was trying to shine as we boarded the Carino catamaran all set for our day out on the water. It's a lovely boat and can take up to 40 people but, luckily for us, there were only 14 people today, even after we had picked up a few more people from the small town of Russell so plenty of room to spread out. The aim of the day was to look for dolphins, and maybe even swim with them if it was safe (for them and us)...

This morning we collected the hire car and were soon on our way out of Auckland, over the harbour bridge and travelling north towards the Bay of Islands. In a short time we left the city and suburbs behind us and were back in farmland, windy roads and hills on either side. We came to a short stretch of toll road and decided to take the 'pretty' way down by the coast instead. I'm glad we did because we came across Waiwera Thermal Park, a mini water world type park...

After breakfast we crossed the sky bridge linking our hotel with Sky City Tower and paused to watch people doing the Sky Jump from above. We took the elevator to the viewing platforms and luckily the weather was clear and sunny and we were able to get great views all around Auckland. Every few minutes another plucky (stupid??) individual would throw themselves off the platform and dangle for a few moments in front of our eyes before being lowered at speed down th...

We woke late this morning and were playing catch up for the rest of the day. After a very late breakfast we took ourselves out for a walk and ended up down at the harbour where we admired the giant rugby ball we had heard so much about, and strolled past the cruise liners along the quayside. There were several giant TV screens and the whole area was buzzing with crowds of people already collecting well ahead of this evening's game, just soaking up the atmosphere...