John & Deb landed safely and we arranged to meet at our motel. Strangely for world travellers, they took some considerable time to wend their way from Mount Eden to Parnell although they seemed to be able to conjure up a whole batch of excuses for being late - Deb's son's car was peculiar, the windscreen wipers weren't that good in the rain, the car needed petrol, etc!! But seriously it was good to see them and we went down the road for our first visit to St Petersburg, a Russian/Uzbek restaurant where we had an enjoyable meal of all things Russian (except the vodka). We're planning to meet up again when they return to Auckland the following weekend.

The following day, in the severe storm that hit Auckland, E drove to the northern limits of the city to Turners - a nationwide car auctioneer. News wasn't any better than he'd heard a few weeks before so it looks as if someone will end up with a bargain courtesy of E & M!! But we'll advertise it any way we can including trying to persuade Carl (our motel owner) to buy it as a hire car for his paying guests.

One major drawback over the last few days was having to pack up and move to a small studio room because we'd told Carl we'd be going away. But with our change of plans due to the horrendous weather and the worst storms in 10 years, we decided there was no point in going when we wouldn't be able to do sightseeing, walking or play golf. We'd given up our apartment for the week and Carl had already booked it out to someone else over the weekend - the motel being very busy because loads of people coming to the city for a big rugby match, All Blacks v the Wallabies in a crucial Tri-nations match (NZ won handsomely). We've so much stuff that we were a bit cramped and as we had no cooking facilities, had to eat out. We were really glad to get back into our apartment!

Over these last few days, we visited the Auckland Museum in the Domain - good and interesting Maori and natural history collections, and a display about volcanoes including a scary interactive one involving an eruption here in Auckland!! It was also great for the postie to bring a letter from Julie including lots of lovely photos of Hannah and Izzy and Julie & Rob (they all look very well despite the reports of political and financial misery back in the UK). We also paid a visit to one of Auckland's best restaurants, Iguacu, where we had a very enjoyable meal. Throughout that day we also made significant progress with our onward travel plans, managing to track down a likely Antarctic cruise - looks as if we will be going. It was also really nice to hear from Tricia, Pam's cousin, who lives north of Auckland, and who invited us for lunch on Saturday (perfect with us having no cooking facilities!). Over a smashing lunch, we had a lovely time chatting about our respective families and life. We're now honoured to call her Patsy, her preferred name.

E & M xxx