Usually I spend a fair proportion of my year in London counting down until the trip to the southern hemisphere and this time was no different....anyway after an excellent looong flight on the lovely Emirates A380 we arrived in sunny Auckland. I was very happy to see our old London friends who have now set up in Auckland, and spend time sipping wine on Bulli's parents peaceful balcony. We did get out and about in the great outdoors a lot - two fun nights on the road with Lynn and Rog down at Rotorua and Mt Maunganui and some great day trips. I also loved our stops at the rugged, hostile-looking beach at Piha, and the run over the black, hot sanddunes where you're rewarded with a dive into massive, almost deserted fresh water lake down the other side.
I was also lucky to go to Villa Maria winery with good friends and enjoy a chilled afternoon/evening watching Dave Dobbyn, Tim Finn and Bic Runga perform crowd pleasing classics under pink, fluffy-clouded skies....
We did a four hour walk around Waimangu Volcanic Valley - see the thermal steam. It was cool, we got there early and there were no other people in sight for most of our walk.
Tour leader Bulli led another big walk, this time around an Auckland Regional Park called Waitakere. It was really dense vegetarian, lots of old old Kauri trees
After yet another walk! This time at the top of Mt Maunganui. We swam in some amazing beaches; the joys of mid week day trips = no crowds!!
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