Hello Everyone!

Writing again from Auckland tonight (17th) on my way south from the Bay of Islands. But am moving on first thing in the morning.

The past couple of days have been quite good and finally got a bit of sun on Tuesday afternoon and used it to walk up to the Waitangi treaty house and grounds which was nice but ended up being a longer walk than I first anticipated. In the evening there was then a quiz at the hostel (yes folks a Tuesday night quiz just like the Hammers and yes our team failed miserably as per usual).

Wednesday brought more rain though unfortunately and meant more time spent indoors but we did manage to find Baywatch on TV! Then in the afternoon the rain eased a bit and just as well as I was starting 'The Rock' (an overnight Bay cruise thing. It was really awsome in the end, around 20 of us on this boat and we did shooting, fishing (got the first, and only one of three edible fish earning myself a free beer!) and night kayaking and swimming (in the phosphorics; an algae that glows when you touch it) on the Wednesday evening along with a BBQ. Then today (Thursday) we had a good breakfast followed by snorkelling, more kayaking, time on the deserted islands and even saw dolphins and it was sunny!

Then it was back on the bus this afternoon back to Auckland before I start moving southward tomorrow to Mercury bay on teh Coromandel.

Thats all for now! R