Well holiday is over and I'm now home with piles of washing and starting to feel very tired but all worth it! Shall be uploading the photos tomorrow...

So my final day in Auckland and NZ :-( Did a bit of a walking tour of the city including stopping at the Art Gallery in the morning but as the main one is being refurbished the collection displayed in the new one is very small. Then walked over to St Patrick's Cathedral and visited the catholic shop (who knew you could get so many versions of a catholic idol? sounds a bit like a religious version of pop idol...) Having completed my tour I decided to get the ferry...

Spent another day looking at museums and historic houses. The morning at Auckland Museum (also known as Auckland War Memorial Museum - but the war memorial is rather marginalised to the upper floor, sadly although the actual memorials are beautiful as are all the stained glass panels) Went to the Maori performance which was interesting to see how all the objects i've seen on display are actually used. Then spent another couple of hours walking round the rest of t...

Annoyingly I had more time than I needed to get ready and catch the bus but not enough to do anything useful in Taupo. So instead I spent time waiting for the bus reading leaflets and drinking coffee in the waiting room at the bus station! Then the final bus journey of my trip this time 5 hours to Auckland (north island bus drivers seem quiet, their buses have seatbelts (which people wear) and make you label your luggage but thats probably because unlike on the s...

Ok so the photo is not really here (its rotorua but its as near as i could see in their list!) Have come to Taupo (literally for an afternoon) to see the lake and huka falls (a hot thermal spring - although no time for a dip) the lake fills the cauldera (spelling?!) of the volcano underneath but the last eruption was a very long time ago (1800 years i think but don't quote me as my travel guide is nowhere near so i may have just invented that number - a high prob...