My last three days were spent in a bit of luxury-why not!? We stayed in the Langhma hotel, just off Queens Street...a good walk up a few steep hills to get back on a hot steamy night though! The first night we met up with some of Shauns friends for a few drinks, the room was a bit messy the day after-but thats what hotels are all about! the next day started with a quick swim on the rooftop pool (oh yes!) before our buffet breakfast in our club lounge (cool ey?)...

Our last little trip-up to Tauranga, to see some more friends. It started out as a dive trip, but true to plan, the weather messed things up! No matter, we had a good two days staying with Brendon and Amber, and thier new baby son, Cowen...managing to eat our weight in takeaways helped while away the days. We also drove up to Mount Manganui (the posh part ) to have a drink with another old friend, and have a soak in the salt water hot pools there. A quick walk ...

So we get to my (almost) last port of call, Lepperton-next to new Plymouth, the main town in Taranaki; home to Shauns mum and dad (Jeff and Barbara). They have a farm with horses, cattle and sheep. We've spent most days either moving stock around, shotting (I am proud to say I can shoot sticks quite well, haven't quite gotten good enough for rabbits yet!) or diving at Bell Block, a suburb down the road with a little reef and wreck on it. Before we left we went ou...

The Oakura food and wine festival. A fantastic day of sampling some very expensive wine in the blistering heat with some new friendsin one of Taranakis vineyards. Met up with a lot of Shauns old friends (too many names to remember) and chatted looking out onto the ocean, listening to a live band-a pretty good day really...got a bit messy towards the end but we all made it home in one piece.

We got to Kaikoura to here some bad news; 35 knott wind expected for the next day-so it didn't look good for our planned activities. That aside we had a catch up (drink) with Kelly and Nigel and the kids; stayed at the campsite in Goose Bay, then headed home the next day (in the rain!)