Hi from the 'City of Sails'!

It was 19 degrees yday. Not bad for the middle of autumn and no rain. . . yet!

There are boats, boats and more boats here. The enthuasism for the water must be a bit infectious though because I am dying to go out there now and do all the sailing things but they are quite expensive so am easing myself in and tomorrow, weather permitting(!), I am spending the day dolphin and whale watching.

Auckland is nothing like any of the other cities, I have seen. Bear in mind, I have not been here a day yet but it seems to have a real identity of it's own which is nothing like Auz and very difficult to describe. I think the word for it is 'nice'. It is very clean and tidy and while with a lot of the other places, there has always been scrapy parts esp. near the airports. Everything here is at the very least, neat and the sky tower (the tallest building in the southern hemisphere) is one of the first things you see. It reminds me more of home then Aus, the little bit of sea that I've seen so far is green rather then the auzzie blue. Green fields too. The people seem a bit british as well. I've said to a couple of locals you know how neat it is etc and normally in other countries,�the people�have been�really proud and are like yeah esp. . . and start boasting about their country. Here, however they raise their eyebrows and say 'mmm, maybe in certain bits'. There also seems to be a bit of a schooligan thing going on here. Lots of groups of kids and lots of local new zealanders moaning about them and issuing "final warnings" to skaters and bikers etc.

Anyway hope you all ok. Ooh and Happy Anzac day. Today is a bank holiday in New Zealand and Aus, to celebrate their army corps. In Auz, there has been a huge build up to it. All the toll roads were closing.�Funny though, I thought it would be a bigger thing here with this been the 'quaint little' country but have not seen any special parades or anything. The shops are closed but all the tourist stuff seems to be going on as ever. In Auz, I was warned that this might not be the case.

Sam xxxxxxxxxx

PS At the airport, there was an archway in arrivals that is all green and rural like and they play bird song as you walk through it!