We arrived at Red Beach after 30 hours in transit from Hudson, NH to Auckland, New Zealand and then a 40 minute drive. We left home on New Year's Day and arrived in NZ on Jan. 3rd. Amazingly, Buzz was not tired, and seemed very alert on the drive. The GPS that our clever IT savvy son-in-law, Jon, downloaded to the Garmin worked perfectly, and we arrived to a wonderfuly warm welcome from Jim & Helen. Two years melted away as we caught up on family news. They will be joining the grandparents club in March and again in June. We spent a very quiet day reading, unpacking, and just getting our bearings after lengthy but mostly uneventful travel. The most exciting thing that hapened enroute was that one of our bags got damaged. When we collected it in Los Angeles, we went to the baggage claim office where they promptly gave us a new bag, gave us a place to repack, and we were on our way. I thought the new hard sided luggage would be more sturdy, but the baggage guy said it is the most frequently damaged...guess we'll go back to fabric when next we need new luggage

On Wednesday, we went with Jim and Helen to Tapora on the Ohahukua Peninsula north West of Red Beach. We stopped at the Atui Regional Park and took a two hour walk through paddocks of sheep and cattle, over locked gates, alongside a pine forest, past a resevoir, up and down hill. As most of you know, it has been some time since I climbed over a gate...much less five of them. I was a little sore the next day! From Atui, we drove to the end of the peninsula to Birds Beach. The tide was out, and it was a good half mile walk to the water; so we opted to just look from the shore. One the way home we stopped for some Waitoke strawberries. Took a three hour nap, had a delicious dinner and more good conversation with Jim and Helen, and slept through the night. I think we are on NZ time now.

Thursday was just a quiet day at home, and Friday we visited the local thrift shops in the morning. In the afternoonthe rain lessened, and we drove with Jim and Helen to Piha which is west of Auckland to walk the trail to the Ketekete falls. The walk took about 40 minutes each way and was not as difficult as the Atui walk was. I got some great photos which I will try to post into this blog. After our trail walk we parked near Piha beach and walked down to the sea. The rock formation is very interesting, and the rocks right at the water's edge were covered in mussels. There is a limit of 25/person; so we took our allotment for appetizers before dinner. We went out to dinner at Abruzzo, the local Italian restaurant.

On Saturday we set out for Auckland and a visit with Dan and Valerie Cohen. On the way we had to stop in Albany at an auto parts store so Buzz culd purchase a can of engne starter fluid. The reason he had to have it is that the brand name is :Start Ya b******!

We got to the Cohens in the early afternoon. The have just completed a wonderful addition/renovation to their home and welcomed us in to our own private guest suite...we are very spoiled by our friends. We spent the afternoon and evening catching up on news of family and mutual friends,Sunday morning dawned wet and grey as had most of the previous days. We drove to Ponsonby and met Andrew Lorrey and his partner Tracy for brunch before heading to the Auckland Art Gallery...great things to do on a rainy day. Later in the afternoon, we went to Andrew and Tracy's home. They have bought a 1920s bunalow and are in the process of restoring the floors. It is a big job, and will be lovely when complete. We had a good visit with them, and much easier conversation than in the noisy cafe!

Today was rainy in the early morning, but the day cleared a bit and we took a drive to Clevedon and Whitford. At Whitford, we went to the Prenzel tasting room, and enjoyed sme lovely liqueurs...and bought some to take along. Unfortunately, the battery in Dan's car died outside the tasting room. After getting a jump start we came home without any further stops along the way.
Tomorrow we head to Tauranga continuing our journey south.