Sunday 21 Feb

Yesterday was very hot and sunny. We set off to look around the coastal and port area of Auckland. We ( Liz) have found it quite difficult to navigate around Auckland with the small street map we have been given. Eventually we found Bucklands Beach where there was a lookout point on the top of a cliff where we could see the city and surrounding islands. We then drove around the coast by beautiful sandy beaches and had a look around an underwater sea life observatory. There were penguins basking on snow, but we are looking forward to seeing them in the wild. Then on to the America’s Cup Quay where there were some very expensive racing yachts and we also looked around the maritime museum, which explained the history of New Zealand from a sea point of view, including the history of the America’s Cup. In the evening we had a very good meal in the revolving restaurant at the top of the Sky Tower. There was a lovely view of the sunset. We are moving on today north out of Auckland.