Auckland last day and Brisbane

We had a slow start to the day as we had to repack all of our cases for travel to Brisbane. When we first got to New Zealand we emptied and repacked our bags so as to make it easier when travelling. When we got to a Motel we only had one small bag with clothes for the next few days. This was great and the same practise we used when travelling in USA but it takes a little while to reorganise.

So bags packed and left with the luggage dept we headed off for breakfast. It was a bit late and so we had an early lunch instead and then off down to the port. I had packed my camera which is a shame as although I had intended not to take any more Auckland photos we got down to the port and tied up at the quayside was the Sapphire Princess the same ship we had seen in Doubtful Sound.

Tied up at the quay it looked enormous with people coming and going at an alarming rate.

We had a coffee and then headed slowly back to the Hotel to pick up our luggage and head out to the airport and boy was this place humming. It would appear that loads of people from the ship were leaving by plane and we were pleased we had decided to splash out on Club Class as this avoided a huge check-in wait.

So we said Goodbye to New Zealand we have had a wonderful time.

The flight was just over three hours and Noel watched ‘Michael Moore’s film Sicko’ which looked at the US healthcare programmes, and the way that the insurance companies treat their customers

We arrived at Brisbane Airport and we were very impressed by the speed of immigration, baggage handling and Customs we were out of the airport in about 20 minutes.

The taxi driver informed us that it had rained heavily for the last 14 days out of 20 but at least now the water shortage is officially over. He also said that the rain was on the way out at which point it started to rain quite heavily.

Tomorrow we change Hotels and start exploring Brisbane and it’s surrounds for three days before we leave on the train for Cairns.