We had a really informative day in Auckland so here are some of the things we learnt.

At the Auckland museum we were intrigued at the examples of moari wood carving and weaving with new zealand flax. No demonstration of the hacker but I'm sure somewhere on our trip there will be one. We were amazed to find out that the first moari settlers got to New Zealand only 800 years ago at a similar time to king John signing the Magna Carta.

There seems to be coffee shop on every street in Auckland, the kiwis certainly take there coffer seriously. You can get everything from the ubiqutous starbucks to some very nice Italian coffee.

Also at the museum we learned that Auckland is sitting on top of an old volcanoes. We watched a rather scarey simulation of a volcanic explosion and it's pyroclastic flow smothering the city. The shaking floor made it extra realistic!

Finally while we were eating our lunch at the very pleasant winter gardens cafe we overheard of conversation discussing news from the motherland. Yes, it was the news that Dierdrie Barlow had died.

We're now in Mt Manganui, about three hours drive from auckland, with our friend's Adrian and Leanne and it looks like a trip to the beach today.