After a leisurely morning we drove across the harbour bridge and over to Devonport. There are some lovely houses here and plenty more historic buildings but it was much chillier today and we were grateful to slip inside a nice warm cafe for a spot of lunch. Amanda had those green-lipped mussels again, yummy!! In the evening our friends, Gordon and Gwen, picked us up from the hotel and took us over to Mission Bay along the water front on Tamaki Drive. We walked b...

We left Mike and Gay's place after breakfast and drove into Auckland. It was a lovely, sunny day and too early to check into the hotel so we decided to go and see the view from Mount Eden which we had been told is well worth seeing. The sat nav threw a bit of a wobbly and took us round the same area 3 times without actually taking us to Mount Eden itself. When we were passing the prison for the 3rd time we decided to go it alone and find our own way. We eventuall...

After a great sleep on a very comfortable bed we woke up to a beautiful day on 'the farm'. Mike had already fed the chooks and was up to his elbows sorting out a mis-behaving septic tank. Luckily he was able to use his great skill and ingenuity to fix it or we dread to think what the result might have been!! After breakfast we all set off out, including Wendy the dog, for a bit of an outing. First stop was the Matua winery where we tasted a couple of very good w...

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)...