Auckland

18th November 2009 An admin day today, lots of things to sort before we leave for Wellington and the south island tomorrow. After leaving Tristan and Andrea’s we called into a local shopping centre for a mooch before heading into central Auckland where we’re staying tonight, close to the railway station ready for tomorrow’s journey. Nothing too exciting today - haircut for Claire, the return of the hire car, and a bit of shopping, although we did go and see A Christmas Carol at the IMAX theatre this evening which was excellent, pretty scary in places though. The 3D effects were so much better than the 3D Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs which we’d seen in the USA. Don’t know whether this because it’s IMAX rather than standard 3D or because the film was simply better created. But definately well worth a watch. ...

17th November 2009 We made our way back to Auckland today via the coastal road all the way from Thames. There are stunning views on this route over the Firth of Thames looking back towards the Cormorandal region where we have spent the last few days. We stopped at various points along the way to do a minor spot of twitching since this area is particularly famous for its seabirds. Unfortunately the extremely changeable weather put paid to us exploring the Miranda Shorebird Reserve. ...

30th October 2009 After our chat with Trystan last night we decided to extend our car hire until 19th November as it is just easier to get around by car, it also gives us access to some of the smaller and more intimate hostels which are a little more off the beaten track. Unfortunately we have to return the car to Auckland, but this also gives us the opportunity to take the train to Wellington, which is something we had wanted to do, but didn’t think we’d get the chance since we’d miss too much in between. So actually this way we get the best of both worlds. ...

29th October 2009 This morning we made the short walk from Parnell to the Auckland museum, about 15 minutes away. This museum houses a large number of Maori items, as well as having a Maori Cultural Show several times a day, which we purchased ticket for. We were summoned through to the main Maori exhibition by people dressed in traditional Marori attire where we were given a brief introduction and then led through to a small auditorium with a stage. ...

25th/26th October 2009 Attending church on a Sunday morning is something of a Rarotongan tradition. Each of the local churches welcomes the tourists to come into their morning service and listen to the wonderful Maori singing, followed by a feed at the community centre. The church we attended in Titikaveka was a lovely building built in the eighteen hundreds, the pulpit area was filled with local flowers and the windows were plain looking out onto the lush green hills behind. The church is a perfect square representing the fact that before God there is no colour or creed, simply human beings. The singing was superb and truly raised the roof and true to form I got quite emotional when they started (it’s something about choirs!). The entire service was conducted in Maori, apart from the lesson which was spoken first in Maori, then English. After the service, the Church secretary thanked a few special guests for coming, one of which was the Queens Representative on the Cook Islands, so we’d been at church with royalty (well almost!). ...

27th October 2009 After a good night’s kip at the SKylodge we walked 5 minutes up the road to a cafe to grab some breakfast. The weather is a bit of a shock here this morning, quite cold and windy, and by the time we’d had breakfast and got back to the hostel to get our bags it was raining - just like home. We caught the bus into Auckland downtown before switching to the the Link bus service to get us out to Parnell where we are staying for a few nights. ...

28th October 2009 The weather was looking much better today so we decided to make the most of it and get up early and catch the first ferry across to Rangitoto Island. Rangitoto sits just off the Auckland coast and is a unique volcanic island with a fascinating landsacpe of rugged lava crops, native bush and sandy coves. These days there is no permanent population living on the island and it is a public nature reserve. ...