It is quite grey when we awake this morning and it looks as if it rained quite hard overnight.
A light breakfast and then a walk along the beach we thought. Then the rain arrived again and so we decided to hang in there at home and watch the waves for a while.
By mid afternoon the rain had stopped so off we went down the beach in the dark grey afternoon and then across the bay we saw a rain storm approaching and so we went back to the Taipa Bay resort for a cup of tea and a small bun whilst the rain came down. Thank heavens it did not last too long and we could set off back to the house. A quiet evening was had by all watching Television and reading before hitting the sack.
This was a nice day doing very little and let’s hope the weather improves as we would both like some sun.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
12th November 2008- Time to try Mangonui famous fish & chip shop
It was a bit grey again this morning and it looked like it would rain soon, but it didn’t.
Most of the day was spent considering what we would do for our last month in NZ, would we fly to Christchurch and rent a car there or rent one in Auckland and drive to the Coramadel Peninsular (east of Auckland) then drive down to Wellington and use the ferry to Picton. Decisions, decisions. However no real decision has yet been made at the moment as its still some time before February next year.
So we took it easy for the day read books, Noel listened to his I-pod and lunch was on the balcony. Although it was greyish it was not cold and the ambient temperature is improving slowly. In fact the
We received an email from our hosts to say that it looked like we had almost exceeded our internet data transfer capacity for a month in less than 10 days. I suppose I am used to the UK SKY broadband that we have at home which is operating at around 14 mb download and 780 mb upload, no max usage and all for £ 10.00 per month. Here in NZ it’s quite different where broadband cost is considerably higher than the UK and with much slower speeds and restricted data transfer capacity and so when I am updating my Phanfare blog with photos I pretty much blew the months usage on one days photos and so will have to restrict photos for the time being until we find an alternative process.
Early evening we headed into Mangonui to try out the ‘World famous Mangonui Fish Shop (anyway that’s what is says outside the shop) We got there at about 7 pm and they had virtually no fish left and only one type available, I asked did they have any more fish and the lady said no. Strange I thought and then ten minutes later another great pile of fresh fish arrived??(Perhaps that’s why its world famous for not having much fish). By comparison our experience with the Akaroa fish & chip shop, near
Afterwards we took a walk around the village and it was pretty much deserted but really very pleasant. There is a new Thai restaurant which was open but only the staff were there, most of the other cafes and bars (about four) were also empty. I am sure it will pick up in December when the schools close. We booked a table for dinner for this coming Saturday night at the Galley Restaurant (the restaurant is located inside the old Post office building built 1876 and rebuilt in 1904) where we went the night we arrived in Mangonui as it’s very good food and also it’s nice to eat out occasionally.
Back home and a little TV, we watched Inspector Linley and Murder Most Horrid, all
Tuesday 11th November-A trip to Kaitaia
The sun was shining but slowly fading as we left for a visit to Kaitaia which is about 25 minutes from here going north. We passed the bridge where we understand that work has been going on forever and a day and low and behold one guy was working whilst the other was asleep in his dump truck. So things are normal here then.
Kaitaia is a smallish town with a real mixture of shops and a number of Pawn shops as well. We briefly visited the bank for a moment to change some Travellers cheques and then walked around the town. We visited a retailer of sports gear they also sell tents which was the prime purpose for us visiting the shop. They appear to have everything we need for our South Island camping trip, tents and all the extra bits and pieces that you need.
The price of fuel is very cheap in NZ; see photo and this works out at the current rate of exchange as Unleaded at £0.62 per litre and Diesel at £ 0.53 per litre a little cheaper than the
We left town and headed for what is called
We also visited the beach further up at Waipapakauri and also looked around the Top 10 campsite there. This was also nice and clean and well organised. Most of these areas were very quiet as the peak season for this area does not start until December when the children go on their summer holidays.
We left there and took the back roads back to Awanui Junction (crossing actually), through fields with so many cattle it was amazing, and stopped for a quick ice cream before returning home for a nice shepherds pie.
We intend to drive all the way up route one to
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Monday 10th November 2008- What’s up doc?
Some while ago Noel was diagnosed with Arthritis in the left knee and the Doc said, well it's your age but come back to me when it begins to hurt all the time-Great.. Anyway with all the walking up the hills of Auckland the knee has started playing up in fact it’s the muscles behind the knee that were hurting.
Brian had recommended his physiotherapist following his knee surgery and so I made an appointment to see her this morning. The practise is in a smallish house up on the hills at Cooper's Beach overlooking the sea and a great place to view the scenery from the massage table. When I arrived she asked me to fill in the details of my accident?? What accident I said, she said you must have had an accident to qualify for the low cost and so I indicated that I twisted my knee whilst going down Brian’s house drive. Great that saved me NZ 70.00.
A quick poke around in my knee and some exercise advice followed and I was up and off and to return next week for more of the same.
I went gingerly home and felt not bad and so we went for a walk along the beach and stopped at the Taipa Bay Resort, nice place this( www.taipabay.co.nz), for a cup of tea and cake. The weather was a bit grey but it did not rain and so we headed home looking at the small amount of shops in Taipa. We have also been recommended to go to the only cinema in the area which is out of Taipa by a few miles called the ‘Swamp Palace’ apparently its well known and with only 68 seats and a complete film introduction by the cinema owner, it could be an experience but unfortunately its not open again until 17 th December. It must be quite an important place as it is marked on the NZ map.
This evening Noel cooked up a couple of steaks which we had purchased from the local butcher and settled down with a glass of wine and watched the amazing sunset, see photos.
The premiership football was on tonight and so I watched the Man U game and also Chelsea beat Blackburn 2.0 It was pouring with rain and I understand that they almost
stopped the game as the ref could not see the linesman on the far side of the pitch..
Tomorrow it should be warmer and 22 degrees centigrade is promised for our neck of the woods and so we are going in to Kaitaia for some shopping and then we will do some touring around.
A Noel Moan
On Saturday I set up a payment with Lloyds Bank for the final payment to the house builder. When checking on Sunday that all was Ok I received a message that I should receive a phone call within 72 hours to confirm that the details were correct. So when contacting my answer-phone on Monday I had received the call which I returned. After having given them my name, Account and Sort Code, mothers name, my security code, address, what credit cards I have with Lloyds Bank and the last transaction, the colour of my hair, the make of car and colour and registration plate and also my wife's name etc etc, they said it would be fine, all I had to do was to login after ten minutes and approve the payment which I did, only to find I was being advised that I had no access to my account and to call this number. Which I did only to find they were closed until 0800. So at o8.30 UK time I called them and gave them name, Account and Sort Code, mothers name, my security code, address, what credit cards I have with Lloyds and the last transaction, the colour of my hair, the make of car and colour and registration plate and also my wife's name etc etc they agreed to let me into my account. These phone calls cost lots of money and although I told them I was calling from New Zealand the Lloyds lady said she had been there and how nice it is in Kent!!!
Brian had recommended his physiotherapist following his knee surgery and so I made an appointment to see her this morning. The practise is in a smallish house up on the hills at Cooper's Beach overlooking the sea and a great place to view the scenery from the massage table. When I arrived she asked me to fill in the details of my accident?? What accident I said, she said you must have had an accident to qualify for the low cost and so I indicated that I twisted my knee whilst going down Brian’s house drive. Great that saved me NZ 70.00.
A quick poke around in my knee and some exercise advice followed and I was up and off and to return next week for more of the same.
I went gingerly home and felt not bad and so we went for a walk along the beach and stopped at the Taipa Bay Resort, nice place this( www.taipabay.co.nz), for a cup of tea and cake. The weather was a bit grey but it did not rain and so we headed home looking at the small amount of shops in Taipa. We have also been recommended to go to the only cinema in the area which is out of Taipa by a few miles called the ‘Swamp Palace’ apparently its well known and with only 68 seats and a complete film introduction by the cinema owner, it could be an experience but unfortunately its not open again until 17 th December. It must be quite an important place as it is marked on the NZ map.
This evening Noel cooked up a couple of steaks which we had purchased from the local butcher and settled down with a glass of wine and watched the amazing sunset, see photos.
The premiership football was on tonight and so I watched the Man U game and also Chelsea beat Blackburn 2.0 It was pouring with rain and I understand that they almost
stopped the game as the ref could not see the linesman on the far side of the pitch..Tomorrow it should be warmer and 22 degrees centigrade is promised for our neck of the woods and so we are going in to Kaitaia for some shopping and then we will do some touring around.
A Noel Moan
On Saturday I set up a payment with Lloyds Bank for the final payment to the house builder. When checking on Sunday that all was Ok I received a message that I should receive a phone call within 72 hours to confirm that the details were correct. So when contacting my answer-phone on Monday I had received the call which I returned. After having given them my name, Account and Sort Code, mothers name, my security code, address, what credit cards I have with Lloyds Bank and the last transaction, the colour of my hair, the make of car and colour and registration plate and also my wife's name etc etc, they said it would be fine, all I had to do was to login after ten minutes and approve the payment which I did, only to find I was being advised that I had no access to my account and to call this number. Which I did only to find they were closed until 0800. So at o8.30 UK time I called them and gave them name, Account and Sort Code, mothers name, my security code, address, what credit cards I have with Lloyds and the last transaction, the colour of my hair, the make of car and colour and registration plate and also my wife's name etc etc they agreed to let me into my account. These phone calls cost lots of money and although I told them I was calling from New Zealand the Lloyds lady said she had been there and how nice it is in Kent!!!
Sunday, November 09, 2008
9th November Keri Keri Farmers Market day
Kerikeri is about 35 miles south of Taipa where we are staying and each Sunday they have a farmers market. So we thought we would combine some shopping at New World Supermarket with a visit to the Farmers market.
The journey to Kerikeri takes about one hour and it's a very pleasant drive through the hills, and some small mountains, but all very green en route. It is a bit grey today and mostly cloud cover and little sun which is a shame and therefore not good for scenic photographs. We arrived at our destination and found the market which is actually quite small. We spent a pleasant 45 minutes exploring the stalls which were selling great looking vegetables and private wine labels. We bought some vegetables which looked nice and fresh and then had a local sausage wrap and then shared a blueberry hotcake with a touch of cream and it was excellent.
Then off to the supermarket where we found that the cost of food was cheaper than the farmers market? and proceeded to buy the rest of our requirements. We also replenished our wine stocks which had been depleted by the Friday night party.
The journey back was via the ‘Million Dollar Road’ route which runs alongside the coast with some amazing views and great beaches but due to the strong winds kicking up considerable spray there was a heavy mist no doubt combined with sand which made photos pointless. We will go back when the weather improves. Its not very cold and about 19 degrees centigrade but we hope to have better luck when we go next time.
We arrived home mid afternoon and Noel watched
In true British style we had a Sunday roast of New Zealand Lamb with a glass of plonk which we drank partly outside on the balcony overlooking the sea. Very pleasant until the wind got up and it started to rain. Oh well, it is still early in the year here at the moment and so the current weather is to be expected.
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
Week 45 New Zealand Tour Winter 2008/9
Monday 3rd November We head North
We packed our bags and waited from Brian and Shelia to arrive and take us back to Mangonui which is about a five hour drive from
We had a mixture of sun and rain in our travels but there was very little traffic on our journey. Just North of Auckland there is springing up a new town mostly for the Chinese immigrants. It’s a very large area that is likely to expand as the immigration is still quite high.
A friend of Brian and Shelia was celebrating her birthday and so we were invited along and we had some ‘bubbly’ at Valda’s house before dinner at The Galley restaurant where we enjoyed a nice evening with excellent food.
So a tired couple of
Tuesday 4th November- It’s shopping day
We walked around Mangonui for a while this morning whilst Shelia worked in the Library and we had coffee before heading off for Kaitaia for some shopping.
This seems like quite a busy little town and we had a brief lunch and went in to Pak’n’Save Supermarket. It’s a bit cheap and cheerful and very much like Quicksave we had in the UK with most of the products left in cartons and it looks a bit messy. We have used this chain of supermarkets before but prefer New World Supermarket chain which is very much like a Waitrose quality supermarket. Mangonui has only a few shops and so for main shopping you go to Kaitaia which is about 30 minutes away and/or Kerikeri which is about one hour away.
Our visit to both these towns was brief and so over the next week or so we shall re visit these towns. We headed back to Mangonui and visited the local butcher and also the fish man.
Tonight we shall have dinner in the house.
Wednesday 5th of November, Gunpowder, treason and plot
Well its Guy Fawkes day in UK and also here in New Zealand it is celebrated by some. However we decided to have an easy day and try to get over the thirteen hour time change so most of the day we lazed about and did very little. Joanne, our daughter, has told us the new Sofa's have been delivered to Piplin House and one of them has not been assembled correctly, why oh why do people not care about their workmanship?
The weather today was very blowy with quite a bit of rain interspersed with sunny patches but quite relaxing really.
It was Sheila's turn to cook tonight and so after a bottle or two of wine we enjoyed a very pleasant dinner. Tomorrow we are planning a walk and I hope my knee improves as I have been suffering quite a bit with the affects of arthritis and the muscles behind my knee and so I will try to see a Physiotherapist whilst I am here. Lets hope it better tomorrow. Also we are expecting a guest, somebody we met in the Wagamama restaurant over the weekend. She is in the area doing conservation work and by surprise tracked us down and is visiting us tomorrow.
Thursday 6th November- A quiet day
We decided to take it easy again today as Brian and Sheila needed the car to carry out the jobs they needed to do before leaving for their long South American trip. We also watched the US elections on the TV which was good to do and now hopefully the Yanks will stop their infringing on other countries.
It was quite a landslide victory for the Democrats and will teach George Bush a huge lesson we hope. We had dinner together and a nice evening was had by all.
Friday- 7th November- A trip to Kaitaia
The weather was great today and quite warm, We needed some shopping and headed off to Kaitaia to the big supermarket. On the way we stopped at a lovely 'Top 10 Camping site'. Talk about well equipped, if you have only a tent there is a full kitchen which you can use apart from the usual ablutions and if this is an example of how all the sites are that will be great when we go camping in the South island next year.
Kaitaia is a small town but not really attractive to look at and so I did not take any photos, perhaps next time when we have more time to walk around a bit more. Tonight our host's are having a farewell party with some of their friends and so the shopping needed to be back early so that all food preparations could be made.
It was a very nice evening and we met some nice couples, one couple Robin and Lorraine we have met before, he used to be a production controller in Thames TV and a very interesting guy to talk to.
A latish night and perhaps too much of the New Zealand wine was consumed but they had a good send off.
The house is now ours for the next three months and we can now start travelling around a bit. We have to take Brian and Shelia to a friend tomorrow who will drive them to Auckland Airport for their flight.
We are staying in their house, see details as per following link
http://www.professionals.co.nz/MGI10538/Since we wrote our Hong Kong visit report The Hong Kong Club has opened its new website. For those of you interested please see following link
http://www.thehongkongclub.hk/index.html
Saturday 8th November- Brian & Sheila leave for Latin America
An early start as Brian & Shelia were leaving today and so we drove them to meet their friend who would take them to
There were a few bottles left over from last night and also general rubbish which needed to go to the dump, no rubbish collection here in the sticks you know. It’s a small site about five minutes away and very organised even to the point that you sort the different sorts of plastics.
We made a quick shopping trip to the Butchers and purchased two lovely steaks for tomorrow nights dinner. Lunch was the left-over from the party of pizza and desert which was just right.
Following a brief rest we took a walk down to Cable Bay named because there used to be a Cable Station here connecting New Zealand with Queensland in Australia but now they have a new one from Auckland to Sydney and so the old station is gone.
It was a little windy but there were only a few people on the beach and we had an ice cream and walked home.
Dinner tonight was the ‘Snapper’ we had purchased from the local fish man and it was absolutely great, not too cheap, but good.
We ate most of our dinner on the balcony until a small rain shower came in and it cooled a little but not very cold like
We have decided to go to Kerikeri tomorrow to see the town and also the farmers market which is understood to be very good.
It's voting day today in New Zealand and the butcher asked us if we had voted yet, we of course told him we could not as we are just visiting but he was not too interested and was unsure what time it closed or where to go to vote. It's missing some of the American razzamatazz.
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Week 44 New Zealand Winter 2008/9
Monday 27th we are off on our travels again
We finished our packing and cleaned the house, emptied the fridge and drank all the booze (not quite) and we are off again on our travels, this time back to New Zealand to see out the cold English winter months.
The Air New Zealand flight was quite full but we had booked seats in the nose end of the aircraft and the seats (read beds) were great and we both slept very well on our first leg to Hong Kong.
After almost twelve hours we arrived in Hong Kong on Tuesday evening about 45 minutes early which meant that we reached our Hotel in plenty of time to go for dinner. We decided to go to the ‘Milano’ which has been one of our favourite restaurants from previous visits. The food and wine were up to the usual good standard and afterwards we went to a busy little bar called ‘From Dusk till Dawn’ where we listened to the live band for about an hour before heading back to the Renaissance New World Hotel for bed.
Wednesday 29th An easy day
A late small breakfast and Noel went off to meet some old business colleagues whilst Jen sat by the swimming pool for a few hours.
Noel got back about 3.30 pm and also enjoyed the poolside for a while. We were both looking forward to our dinner at the Hong Kong Club with some more of Noel’s business colleges.
We had a great evening at the Club with Peter G, Wolfgang & Gigi S and Phil B. names are withheld for good reasons. It was a most enjoyable evening and the food and company were great.
There was still some life in us after the dinner and so we went to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel for a couple of quick ones for the road. We returned to the Hotel around 12.30 am feeling a bit tired but it was a lovely evening.
The discussions over dinner ranged from the current financial challenges to how a mutual friend ‘Archie D’ and his horse were doing? Anyway we solved the financial crisis within one hour after committing all the rich Nations ie China, India and Taiwan to bail out the rest of the world. This was a very good plan we agreed after a considerable amount of booze had been consumed..
Thursday 30th October Got a hangover
We had a late breakfast after a late night and then packed our bags and checked out at midday and went for a walk, including a visit to an electronics arcade. This is two floors of about a hundred small companies all selling cameras to notebooks to bits of computers etc. I needed to purchase a new battery for my mobile phone.
Lunch was taken in an Irish Pub called Delaney’s from where we watched the world walk by. There are a lot of Australian and New Zealanders in Hong Kong at this time getting ready for the Rugby match to be held in the Hong Kong Stadium.
The sun was emerging from the Smog and highlighted the amount of China Smog that swirls around Hong Kong almost every day. When the Olympics were on and the polluting factories were closed we understand that the weather in Hong Kong was really clear and bright, "just like the old days". The train from downtown to the airport was as efficient as ever and we reached the Airport Terminal in ample time to relax for a while. It will be another 11 hour flight to Auckland where we are due to arrive around 1100 in the morning.
The stock markets around the world continue to fluctuate badly and we noticed at one time today that one of the Hong Kong stock exchanges was closed for a while, strange we thought.
Friday 31 October- We arrive in Auckland
The flight was pretty much on time at about 11.00 hrs and we were off the aircraft and through immigration and customs within about 35 minutes which we thought was pretty good.
The car from the Langham Hotel was waiting. They have just purchased three Lexus 600 hydrid models and it was fantastic to be in, I even asked if I could drive. The weather was mild, but not warm, and there had been some rain earlier in the day. It would appear that the weather in New Zealand over the winter months May-September had been pretty bad with considerable amounts of rain and high winds and perhaps the worst winter for some years.
The Hotel seemed fairly quiet which is just what we wanted and it was slightly out of the Central Business District. We needed a rest and so hit the sack for a couple of hours and then went for a walk down town and had dinner at a great Italian Restaurant called Vivace where we had eaten before on past trips to Auckland.
We walked back up Queen Street to the Hotel, most of it was uphill and so a good exercise after dinner. And so to bed.
Saturday 1 November- The weather is better today
We left the Hotel fairly late and had breakfast in a small bakery. Auckland town was very quiet compared to our last visit. We went to a sport store to look at tents and to find out prices for all the equipment we will need to purchase for when we start our tour of the South Island in the early part of next year.
The shop only had one make of tents set up and we asked about the Coleman range and they said that they do sell this brand and would put up the one we wanted so that we could see what it looked like. We were told to come back in half and hour and it would be ready. We found a café and had a well earned cup of coffee and then went back forty minutes later to peruse the tent. It looks just right and so perhaps we may well go ahead after we have made some more enquires about other equipment etc.
We walked partly through an area called Ponsonby and then took the bus down to Victoria Park where the Auckland marathon was due to start on the following day and we saw all the preparations for the day.
As the sun was shining we walked along by the Marina and back in to the town centre for an excellent ice cream and then booked tickets for the cinema to see a Coen brothers film called, "Burn after reading".
We took dinner at Wagamama’s and of all things sat next to a family who had lived in Winchester and the mother was going on Sunday to a house less than a mile from where we would be staying.
The film was excellent and a really good example of black humour. It’s really worth watching.
Sunday 2nd November and the sun came out
The last Formula One race of the season from Brazil was on and we were able to see a certain Mr Hamilton win by one point after scraping home yards in front of a Toyota. Well done and its nice to have a BRITISH Formula one champion again when you consider that most of the F1 teams are either based in the UK or use mostly UK engineers.
We only saw part of Ponsonby yesterday and as we had partly got over our tiredness I decided to take the camera along and make it a photographic trip. To me I have to be feeling good and not tired to enjoy taking photographs and that is why we had not taken any during the last couple of days. So we walked around Ponsonby which is a nice part of Auckland town and being a Sunday morning couples and families were enjoying their breakfast. We had our big breakfast in a small café in a very old arcade. After enjoying this area we took the bus to Parnell which has a great tourist attraction and there were many foreigners??? there. We prefer Ponsonby as it’s got a much better feel to it.
During our walk we saw a number of signs for the forthcoming Government Elections,see photo.
On the walk back to town we checked some car hire pricing for our travels next year.
A very large cruise liner from Celebrity Cruises has arrived in town and discharged a couple of thousand people and therefore downtown was very busy indeed.
We took the Shuttle back to the Hotel for a ‘freshen up’ before meeting our friends Brian and Shelia for dinner. It is their house that we will occupy for three months just outside Taipa whilst they are away on their travels to South America and the Antarctic.
We tested a few beers at an Irish Pub, yep another one, and then went for dinner. We decided to have an early night.
We finished our packing and cleaned the house, emptied the fridge and drank all the booze (not quite) and we are off again on our travels, this time back to New Zealand to see out the cold English winter months.
The Air New Zealand flight was quite full but we had booked seats in the nose end of the aircraft and the seats (read beds) were great and we both slept very well on our first leg to Hong Kong.
After almost twelve hours we arrived in Hong Kong on Tuesday evening about 45 minutes early which meant that we reached our Hotel in plenty of time to go for dinner. We decided to go to the ‘Milano’ which has been one of our favourite restaurants from previous visits. The food and wine were up to the usual good standard and afterwards we went to a busy little bar called ‘From Dusk till Dawn’ where we listened to the live band for about an hour before heading back to the Renaissance New World Hotel for bed.
Wednesday 29th An easy day
A late small breakfast and Noel went off to meet some old business colleagues whilst Jen sat by the swimming pool for a few hours.
Noel got back about 3.30 pm and also enjoyed the poolside for a while. We were both looking forward to our dinner at the Hong Kong Club with some more of Noel’s business colleges.
We had a great evening at the Club with Peter G, Wolfgang & Gigi S and Phil B. names are withheld for good reasons. It was a most enjoyable evening and the food and company were great.
There was still some life in us after the dinner and so we went to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel for a couple of quick ones for the road. We returned to the Hotel around 12.30 am feeling a bit tired but it was a lovely evening.
The discussions over dinner ranged from the current financial challenges to how a mutual friend ‘Archie D’ and his horse were doing? Anyway we solved the financial crisis within one hour after committing all the rich Nations ie China, India and Taiwan to bail out the rest of the world. This was a very good plan we agreed after a considerable amount of booze had been consumed..
Thursday 30th October Got a hangover
We had a late breakfast after a late night and then packed our bags and checked out at midday and went for a walk, including a visit to an electronics arcade. This is two floors of about a hundred small companies all selling cameras to notebooks to bits of computers etc. I needed to purchase a new battery for my mobile phone.
Lunch was taken in an Irish Pub called Delaney’s from where we watched the world walk by. There are a lot of Australian and New Zealanders in Hong Kong at this time getting ready for the Rugby match to be held in the Hong Kong Stadium.
The sun was emerging from the Smog and highlighted the amount of China Smog that swirls around Hong Kong almost every day. When the Olympics were on and the polluting factories were closed we understand that the weather in Hong Kong was really clear and bright, "just like the old days". The train from downtown to the airport was as efficient as ever and we reached the Airport Terminal in ample time to relax for a while. It will be another 11 hour flight to Auckland where we are due to arrive around 1100 in the morning.
The stock markets around the world continue to fluctuate badly and we noticed at one time today that one of the Hong Kong stock exchanges was closed for a while, strange we thought.
Friday 31 October- We arrive in Auckland
The flight was pretty much on time at about 11.00 hrs and we were off the aircraft and through immigration and customs within about 35 minutes which we thought was pretty good.
The car from the Langham Hotel was waiting. They have just purchased three Lexus 600 hydrid models and it was fantastic to be in, I even asked if I could drive. The weather was mild, but not warm, and there had been some rain earlier in the day. It would appear that the weather in New Zealand over the winter months May-September had been pretty bad with considerable amounts of rain and high winds and perhaps the worst winter for some years.
The Hotel seemed fairly quiet which is just what we wanted and it was slightly out of the Central Business District. We needed a rest and so hit the sack for a couple of hours and then went for a walk down town and had dinner at a great Italian Restaurant called Vivace where we had eaten before on past trips to Auckland.
We walked back up Queen Street to the Hotel, most of it was uphill and so a good exercise after dinner. And so to bed.
Saturday 1 November- The weather is better today
We left the Hotel fairly late and had breakfast in a small bakery. Auckland town was very quiet compared to our last visit. We went to a sport store to look at tents and to find out prices for all the equipment we will need to purchase for when we start our tour of the South Island in the early part of next year.
The shop only had one make of tents set up and we asked about the Coleman range and they said that they do sell this brand and would put up the one we wanted so that we could see what it looked like. We were told to come back in half and hour and it would be ready. We found a café and had a well earned cup of coffee and then went back forty minutes later to peruse the tent. It looks just right and so perhaps we may well go ahead after we have made some more enquires about other equipment etc.
We walked partly through an area called Ponsonby and then took the bus down to Victoria Park where the Auckland marathon was due to start on the following day and we saw all the preparations for the day.
As the sun was shining we walked along by the Marina and back in to the town centre for an excellent ice cream and then booked tickets for the cinema to see a Coen brothers film called, "Burn after reading".
We took dinner at Wagamama’s and of all things sat next to a family who had lived in Winchester and the mother was going on Sunday to a house less than a mile from where we would be staying.
The film was excellent and a really good example of black humour. It’s really worth watching.
Sunday 2nd November and the sun came out
The last Formula One race of the season from Brazil was on and we were able to see a certain Mr Hamilton win by one point after scraping home yards in front of a Toyota. Well done and its nice to have a BRITISH Formula one champion again when you consider that most of the F1 teams are either based in the UK or use mostly UK engineers.
We only saw part of Ponsonby yesterday and as we had partly got over our tiredness I decided to take the camera along and make it a photographic trip. To me I have to be feeling good and not tired to enjoy taking photographs and that is why we had not taken any during the last couple of days. So we walked around Ponsonby which is a nice part of Auckland town and being a Sunday morning couples and families were enjoying their breakfast. We had our big breakfast in a small café in a very old arcade. After enjoying this area we took the bus to Parnell which has a great tourist attraction and there were many foreigners??? there. We prefer Ponsonby as it’s got a much better feel to it.
During our walk we saw a number of signs for the forthcoming Government Elections,see photo.
On the walk back to town we checked some car hire pricing for our travels next year.
A very large cruise liner from Celebrity Cruises has arrived in town and discharged a couple of thousand people and therefore downtown was very busy indeed.
We took the Shuttle back to the Hotel for a ‘freshen up’ before meeting our friends Brian and Shelia for dinner. It is their house that we will occupy for three months just outside Taipa whilst they are away on their travels to South America and the Antarctic.
We tested a few beers at an Irish Pub, yep another one, and then went for dinner. We decided to have an early night.
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