All great things must come to an end and so we left their house around 11 am together with Tess and headed south to Auckland. In one small town we saw a historic train going through the main street but we could not stop easily to take photos. When we drove up to Doubtless Bay the weather was appalling but this time the sun was shining and we could see the lovely countryside with rolling green hills, no water shortage here, and with occasional views of some lovely bays and mountains etc. We arrived back in Auckland around 3pm and dropped Tess at the Bus and Train terminal before heading for our Hotel. We emptied the car to be ready to take it back and phoned the car hire company who said they would collect it from our hotel which is great. We had to quickly pop out and fill the petrol tank rather than get charged an arm and a leg for them to do it. In the evening we found a nice restaurant full of locals, not one of those by the bay full of tourists and had a very nice dinner. The annual Boat Show is on in Auckland at the moment and so our plan tomorrow is to walk to the port, look at the boats and perhaps go for a boat Harbour tour or similar.
Auckland has changed and grown dramatically since we were last here with tall building lining the waterfront owned by the poor Banks and Solicitor Groups. The amount of house building in the suburbs is amazing with whole new areas being built but prices are slightly dropping here as well due to the worldwide credit crunch and also that house mortgages here are around 10%. This is high but put in place by the government to help stop the steep increase in home prices which is a disaster for New Zealanders on a local salary.
Anyway we have one and a half days in Auckland before leaving this lovely country for OZ but I think we will be back.
All great things must come to an end and so we left their house around 
