I set off to Rotorua which is where my friends recommended. It is approx 2 hours south of Auckland and it a large lake with a few smaller lakes around. It also has a lot of spa resorts around & geysers ("gay sirs" for my fellow Iceland travellers). The whole area stinks of rotten eggs or sulphur for those in the know. I did a little drive along to the next couple of lakes & have to say the locals drive like bloody maniacs. These are mountai...

Rain....!! I have to say that I am not well & truely a little sick of it. I feel sometimes that I may as well be back in London with the amount of rain that I have seen. Hey-ho!!! Julia, Alan & James kindly took me on a little sightseeing tour of Auckland. We drove through the city itself and I got to see some amazing restaurants along the regenerated dock area. We went up Mt Eden which is an inactive volcano & quite an impressive view can be seen fro...

I set off across Auckland in order to meet up with a very old (no she is not old) school friend. Julia & I were best buddies from around 7 to 12 when I lived in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. We had not seen each other for these past 25'ish years, but Julia had managed to track me down a couple of years ago via a Rhodesian web-site to which I subscribed years ago. When planning my trip I decided to veer off to NZ in order to meet up with her again. Julia was playing ten...

My flight left Sydney pretty much on time & I had no irritating children sitting in the vicinity - perfect. Upon landing in Auckland I had to sort out car hire. I thought this had been done when I used the internet in Sydney airport, but when phoning the car company they advised me they had no free cars & I was probably sent a decline message. So it was back to the Budget desk for their reliable, if somewhat expensive, service. It was a roasting hot e...