Thank Agnes for this, because she told me to take my camera. otherwise i would have been lazy. By the way double clicking the pictures makes them big

Yesteday or the day before. or one of the days I’ve been in NZ, I went for a little harbour cruise around Auckland. It was only a quick and dirty 1 and half hour trip – had some time to fill before flying to Dunedin in the afternoon. Got some good views on Auckland. There is some nice Victorian architecture, some ok modern architecture and a fair amount of bad architecture too. The city is really massive because everybody lives in suburbia which spreads for miles around the city. It’s a pretty watery place in all. the Tasman and Pacific nearly meet to form another island and Auckland is situated at this point. Its supposed to be called the city of sails – and lots of aucklanders own sailing boats. apparently. These guys weren’t sailing though – they were in what i imagine is a modern form of the old Maori canoe – Gels we can do this when you come over, forget twin blade oars. one paddle – you can go home with really strong arms. Then you can bully Dave, with your Maori canoe arms. or even better he can get fantastically muscular legs from cycling my ex road bike, and you can have spectacular muscular arms, you’ll make a lovely eccentric looking couple. The old lighthouse built in the late 1800s – used to be manned, but is now fully automated (liked the solar panels) – as was the sugar refinery (aucklands got it all). The highlight, apart from the complimentary muffin was Rangitoto Island. It’s a recent volcano only 600 years old and national reserve. The rocks are a cool dark larval black (look above the barni, the barrrr... the barnic the line above the barnicrustacean line.), and its densely forested with Christmas trees – not the conifer kind – the new zealand kind that all flower red around Christmas time. They (the politicians?) killed all the possum and wallaby imports that were destroying the ecology of the place. Sadly, no time to hike to the summit of the crater. Over 200 sp of plant on the island – quite diverse. 40 kinds of orchid i think it said too! the local Moari’s witnessed the eruption from a neighbouring island and you can see their footprints in the ash. well you can if you go there. and look. I didn’t. I read that in the travel guide. They’ll jump off anything here – i think they just built this bridge so they could jump off it. The sign that i forgot to take a picture of at the pontoon was strictly instructing people not to jump for the ferry as it left the yard – because the boat engines could seriously damage them if they missed the boat. If anyone can find out how many New Zealanders have been killed or maimed jumping to make the last ferry I’d like that statistic. Aucklands not that bad a place after all, not like jumping to make the last bus out of Baghdad. Sarah, you’re doing your a levels so I assume it’s the menial task that only someone in your position has the time to carry out. Let us all know the figures when you have them. Anyhow it beat the last sign i saw in the UK forbidding you to look at the view.... come again?.... this was taken from the top flight of the car park (pre long haul exercising) at heathrow. Are you supposed to feel your way to the exit? is there a form of car brail that I don’t know about (and how does it affect your insurance premium)? I was feeling extremely pleased to be leaving a place that forbade me to look at the view, though the comfort didn’t last much beyond the 1^st of 28 leg cramping flight hours. Hey guys, cant wait for you all to come over and visit. for everyone who says it’s the journey and not the destination i have a few things i would like to say about that sentiment.

PS saw a black oyster catcher. been a while since i saw one of them.

PS2 saw some other birds but this is a blog not a twitchers sighting log so get off my case. Michael.

PS 3, im in Dunedin now, in my room and its cold. my nose is cold – but not dripping yet. Grandma how long did it take for your grandfather (or was it father?) to get pneumonia when he was in new Zealand? Ive kept turing the fridge temperature down because i thought it wasnt working - but now i realise its just that my room is so cold i cant notice the difference.

anyway im off to the fridge to warm up.