After breakfast we collected the hire car and were on our way travelling south towards Taupo. It was a long ride through agricultural land with a threatening sky above but luckily the rain held off. We stopped for a coffee in the small town of Cambridge, a lovely little place with a very English feel to it. We sat outside at the Deli on the main street and the young girl who served the coffee was proud to point out to me the dog on the top of my coffee (yes, real...

After a super buffet breakfast we were met by Merv, our driver for the day. The weather was not that promising but he did us proud. If it was worth seeing in Auckland then we definitely saw it! From the museums, parks and beaches to the native rain forests, to Pahia and the west coast surf beaches, we saw it all, and Merv managed to keep us just ahead of the bad weather all the way! Highlights for us were a huge gannet colony and wine tasting at Nobilu and Cooper...

In spite of the dreadful typhoon weather in Hong Kong all day yesterday we took off on time and even managed to arrive a little early in Auckland which was quite an achievement. We were met by our friend, Mike who took us back to his place for lunch. Mike and Gay have a fantastic place about 45 minutes drive north of Auckland. They have built a beautiful house on a 5 acre plot in Coatesville. They grow all their own vegetables and a wide variety of fruit and kee...

Sitting at Hong Kong airport with (as usual!) a glass of Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc in hand (Kim Crawford this time) we sit and hope that our flight will eventually appear on the board. Today did most definitely NOT go according to plan. We woke to find that a Typhoon 8 signal had been hoisted since 5 am. The storm which had caused such havoc in the Philippines had been expected to pass at a reasonable distance but had moved closer than anticipated during the n...

The change to daylight saving time meant that we lost a precious hour of sleep this morning. However, we were up, packed, had breakfast and still out in time to check in for a tour of the Speight's brewery. It's a fascinating old place and they have been brewing beer there for more than 150 years and still using some of the original equipment. The earthquakes in Christchurch have resulted in some of the operations from there being moved to Dunedin so they are muc...