Auckland

Last installment! Sylvia had been reading the guidebook on our journey where it suggested that a visit to Auckland is not complete without a trip to one of the gulf islands just off the coast so to Waiheke island we headed! Finding the car ferry was the trickiest part - you know when signs just stop as if visitors to a city are just supposed to 'know' their way, or when you suspect nobody wants you to actually ever get there! The ferry took about an hour and on arriving we drove on the only main road of the island to the largest 'town', Oneroa. The island has about 8,000 residents, most of whom commute to Auckland, but this number can swell to 30,000 in holiday season.It's a bizarre place! It's difficult to describe why it just felt odd and there were lots of things that seemed strange - maybe it's just a closed community so people do laugh or stop talking when you walk into a shop. Maybe it was just us! It has several vineyards and olive groves, though we went to visit one and it was like we were invisible; nobody served us or spoke to us, other customers seemed to ignore us. Maybe it was us! Anyway, we decided to stay the night and our accomodation was a lovely house with stunning views out to both sides of the island. In the morning we had to be pretty assertive getting a place on the car ferry - we got the feeling we'd have just been left there otherwise!
Back on the mainland we caught the bus round the city and took another ferry over to Devonport so we could see the whole of the skyline of Auckland - good photo opportunities! At 5pm we went up the Sky Tower for dinner in their orbital restaurant; your booking lasts 2 hours and in that time the restaurant revolves round twice so you get to see out across the city as you eat. The meal was amazing and, as we were there at dusk we saw the city in a different 'light'.
When we left the Sky tower we drove Ken & Sylvia to the airport to catch the plane back to Singapore. We'd had such a good time with them and got so used to them being around that it was very strange - a few tears.
I've not really mentioned accomodation much because it was all good & a big treat for us to stay in motels but this night's hostel does need some comment. We'd picked a backpacker hostel that said it had car parking because we still had charge of the hire car. There weren't many to choose from but we did suspect it may be dodgy when we drove past it on the bus earlier in the day. I really don't think it was because we'd become accustomed to a higher standard - this place was bad! The bathrooms were grim, Neils was outside and I blew the electrics when I turned on my hairdryer!The real downside was the ants nest in the bin in the bedroom which the owners didn't seem bothered about when we told them the next morning! As you can imagine we checked out the next morning but it had all added to the holiday experience!
We spent our last day in Auckland walking! We went round the museum, though by that stage we were a bit museumed out. We wandered to different shopping centres and sat in parks and also went to an underwater world (sting rays were their speciality and now we can identify a male from a female!) which had a fascinating antarctic exhibition and a replica of Scott's hut. In the evening we had dinner with Paul & Laura Kingsley-Smith (for those who know them) in their new, swanky apartment and it was really good to catch up with familiar faces and hear about all God's doing with them here in NZ.
The final night was spent in a Youth hostel which was much more comfortable (and we got a car parking spot!) and we flew home the next morning. Done the North island now - joke! But it does seem we've done lots more than most Kiwis but that's always the way. I can't believe the places I haven't been in the UK...