Greetings from New Zealand

Hi everyone!

Just to let you know that we arrived safely and on time yesterday afternoon. We've managed to see quite a lot of Auckland, which has involved climbing up to a few volcano craters so legs now very achy!! It rained briefly this morning but apart from that weather has been lovely and warm and pretty sunny, there are plenty of palm trees growing around the place and every other road name is a reminder of the empire. Auckland is a cracking city, there are a lot of Japanese people around and the city is dotted with the remains of volcanoes which all Aucklanders seem to cycle, run or speed walk up regardless of age.


Auckland with the Sky Tower, the tallest building in the southern hemisphere.

We went out to Rangitoto island, which looked a bit like that island from Lost, with a big ass crater suitable for launching rockets to attack cosmonauts from.

Tomorrow we're heading to Waiheke Island for a night and then it's south to Rotorua to see the springs (looking forward to the smell of rotten eggs from all the sulphur!!)