7. Auckland

7. Auckland

Our flight to Auckland via Sydney was long, but arrived in Auckland only 30 minutes late.  We had an easy time passing through immigration, baggage collection and customs.  As soon as we exited arrivals we spotted Chris and Laura.

Chris had created a bright orange “Welcome to Auckland Mum & Dad” poster. It was quite emotional seeing him again.  We had a short chat while we arrange our rental car, then they arranged to come and see us as soon as we got settled into our accommodation. The journey to our flat took about 20 minutes.  We had booked a basement of a house that looks over a golf course about 5 minutes from where Chris and Laura stay.  The couple who own the property let us in and showed us around.  It is a very light and airy one bedroom flat. More than adequate for our needs.  Chris and Laura arrived and took us out for dinner and to pick up a few groceries.  It was great to see them and catch up with what has been going on with them.

They wanted to show us parts of Auckland, so we went to Mt Eden and climbed the hill where you have a beautiful view of the whole city.

We then went for a barbeque lunch at a local brewery before taking a walk around Auckland where Chris pointed our various places that he goes to for entertainment and where he used to stay.  We ended up down by the marina where we stopped at a bar for a drink.

We had spoken about what we would like to do and places we would like to see.  To us it was more important to just spend time with Chris and Laura so we arranged to go to the beach.  There are numerous beaches throughout the area, but we decided to go a bit further afield to the Coromandel Peninsula. It took just under two hours to drive from Auckland to Hahei beach. 

It is a gorgeous sandy beach. We sat in the sun for a while and had our picnic lunch then Laura produced her frisbee.  She plays for an Ultimate Frisbee team. I was useless, but Syd, Chris and Laura had good fun.  We then headed to another beach not far along the coast.  This one is called “Hot Water Beach”!!!

We assumed that the name must be because the sun heats the water in a sheltered cove, but we were wrong. As the tide goes out, you dig a hole in the sand not too far from the waters edge.  As you dig, the hole fills with water from a hidden source. The water is hot – scalding hot in places.  There must be a hot spring nearby.

We headed back to Auckland for a quiet evening.  That didn’t last too long.  Our landlords - Garry and Monica invited us up for a drink. They passed on information on the surrounding area and areas and further afield.

There is a new exhibition at Auckland Zoo “Bug Lab”. It was developed by New Zealand’s Te Papa museum in Wellington along with the Weta Workshop.  It was something that Chris wanted to see, so we decided to go to the Zoo. 

The exhibition was very interesting and the zoo was great.  The enclosures are quite spacious with plenty greenery so the animals get the shade they require.  It does mean that you sometimes have to search for the animals.

See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil!!!

Christmas morning we were picked up by Laura’s Dad and driven to their house. Paul and Jannette along with their son Hayden and other daughter Sara are great company.

  We had a very relaxing day eating, drinking, opening presents and playing board games.

Everyone contributed something to the meal. Paul was the barbeque king. All the meats were cooked to perfection – delicious.

Thank you Paul and Jannette for making our first summer Christmas so memorable.

Laura is coming back to the UK with Chris is May, so her family are a bit concerned about how she we be, staying so far away from home.  We can sympathise with how they feel. I think it helped for them to meet us and talk about the concerns that we had when Chris took off for New Zealand.  Chris and Laura are very happy together and seem well suited. 

Our time with Chris is up. We said our farewells and headed south for the next part of our New Zealand trip.