New Zealand is a very different place from Oz. The countryside is green and the geology seems to be completely different - the country seems to be dissolving and collapsing in on itself. Did you know that there is only one indigenous mammal here - it's a bat. If an animal doesn't swim or fly then it never reached here.

Sallie met us at the airport and brought us to her beautiful house in the Bombay Hills to the south of Auckland. It is set in 6 acres of rolling countryside. Ian and Sallie put us up in their lodge which they have renovated and decorated in Sallie's inimitable style. Ian cooked us a fabulous roast chicken dinner, it was so good to have a home cooked meal after four weeks in cafes, hotels, restaurants and Harry Gow's. The wine and the conversation flowed freely and we were late to bed that night. Thanks so much to Sallie and Ian.

Auckland may be notable for many things but we will remember it for Giapo's ice cream cones. On Sallie's recommendation as the best ice cream in the world, we sought it out on Queen St. Check out the pictures of our cones. My cone was chocolate coated with white chocolate and pistachios, Susan's was dark chocolate coated with gold leaf. We both chose a Samoan ice cream recipe containing caramel and coconut. The lad went on decorating it in the style of Mr Bean in 'Love Actually'. It was fabulous.

That night we met our new group. First impressions are that they may be up for a laugh.

On the first day we headed out of town to Raglan on the West Coast. The highlight of our day was our attempt at paddle boarding. We were the only ones to volunteer to try it out. In paddle boarding you stand on the board and paddle and steer with an extra long paddle. Sounds simple enough. Our instructor was Donald. Donald had a long grey beard, shaved head and drove a 1962 Holden. It was just like the Vauxhall Victor that I had my first driving lesson in. Donald looked as if he played guitar with ZZ Pop.

We went to the estuary where the water was relatively flat but was racing towards the sea. The wind was also blowing strongly towards the sea so this was going to be even more challenging than it first appeared. Susan went first and set off to the other bank. She did really well, managed to stay upright and having forgotten the steering instruction, bumped into the opposite bank. I set off strongly, turned upstream into the wind, got a dose of the wobbles and fell into the water. I caught up with the board, got my arms over, gave the strongest kick I could and hauled myself up. Unfortunately, this frantic action loosened my swimming shorts which ended up at my knees and I was lying across the board with my bare bum in the air. The ladies of Raglan had a dose of the vapours. Having regained my shorts and my composure I set off again. I fell in the estuary 5 times to Susan's twice and after an hour we were both getting the hang of it, being able to steer to wherever we fancied. We finished the session by colliding with each other and falling in for the last time.

In the evening we had fish and chips out of a box while cruising around the Raglan estuary. The scenery was wonderful and we were treated to a fabulous sunset as the boat headed back upstream towards its mooring.