Auckland

We left the holiday park in Miranda and drove south towards Peter's Mum's cousin Mavis's house, also Eveline's daughter. We arrived at Mavis and Brians around 1pm to be greeted by the lovely Mavis and a nice home baked pizza. Spending the whole afternoon with Mavis was brilliant. Brian arrived home from work around 4.30pm, so we chatted some more. We loved hearing Brians local accent (originally from Burnley). Hope the moving house goes well guys. We bothed loved meeting the both of you. After we left Mavis & Brians around 6pm we headed towards the outskirts of Auckland, staying at a caravan site in Manakau .

That night and the following morning we packed our bags and sorted everything out in the campervan. Unfortunately it was the day of having to say goodbye to our brilliant campervan Arnold! The drive to Apollo was only a short journey and was located near the airport.

To get into the city of Auckland we got a taxi to take us to our hostel. That day we just had a walk around the city before grabbing a nice pint on Vulcan lane, then went skycity for some more drinks and a flutter whilst watching people try to win money by collecting money tokens similar to what they do on the crystal maze!

The hostel unfortunately didn't have skysports so we missed the England game the next morning. That day was a lazy day ending in having a chinese at a little restaurant round the corner from our hostel. The next day just involved a walk around the city and a trek up Mount Eden which had great views of Eden Park where New Zealand won the 2011 rugby world cup.

On the friday we had arranged to meet Colin and Elle (a couple we met in Cambodia). They live in the Auckland area. Elle was working that morning but Colin came and picked us up. We got the ferry over to the volcanic island of Rangitoto and climbed to the summit. Here we had great views of the surrounding areas and the city itself. Was good to catch up with Colin, enjoying a Tui beer at the summit, shortly followed by us actually seeing a couple of Tui birds in the trees. On the way back down, Peter & Colin had a little venture inside some lava caves... Peter coming out with a bump on top of his head the silly boy.

It was early afternoon by the time we got back to the city and we went and picked Elle up from work. Our next stop was to mission bay where we went in kiwiyo.... a frozen yoghurt place where you self serve and there is loads of choices of topping.... we mean loads! The price depends on the weight ... yes i think we may of over filled ours a little!

The next stop on Colins Tour of Auckland... was a fair drive to Piha, where theres a massive rock/hill which looks well like a lion sat down facing out to sea. That night the 4 of us enjoyed a nice meal at an italian in Parnell before going to skycity for some drinks and a cheeky bet. Colin doing really well coming away with abit of a profit. It was brilliant meeting up with you guys and good luck with the new house.

That night we had a wierd woman in our dorm who complained when Lucy was on the netbook, saying she had had brain surgery and by Lucy using the computer it gave her massive headaches!!! The next morning after we checked out and had eaten breakfast we left all our remaining bits of food in a box where anyone can use it in the hostel... withing 5 minutes all our food had been taken.... all by the wierd woman staying in our room!

We later got on the airbus to the airport where we said our goodbyes to a fantastic country... we love you New Zealand.