Auckland Part Two.

We've been in Auckland for a few days now.

Wednesday we wandered round the town centre, bought Billy a new phone (for 6x the price it would have been in the UK!) and went to the Auckland museum, which was really interesting. Billy loved all of the stuffed birds and beetles in the natural history section, and we learnt about Maori traditions too. We enjoyed the 'Maori experience' performance from the outside, 50 quid for 15 minutes seemed a bit steep! We were surprised everyone came out alive after all of the wailing and shouting that had been going on. In the evening Richard lent us his car (we weren't sure it was a great idea, but then he'd never seen the state of our cars!) and we drove down to Mission Bay, which was a nice beach and restaurant area. 

Thursday - we visited the Sky Tower in the centre of Auckland. They didn't let you take the stairs, which was a shame, but we enjoyed the views from the top.. and the faces of the people who were mad enough to bungy jump from it! After a yummy Thai lunch we headed back to the Roxburghs were we'd promised to meet the kids from school. We played games, ate donuts and swam in the pool. We even took to the trampoline for a game of 'Ninja' which we paid for through extensive mosquito bites! In the evening we were picked up by Justin who took us back to their lovely new house near the beach in Howick.

Today has been pretty laid back. We woke up latish, and wandered into the town to take a look around. We bought supplies for our trip to the north tomorrow and ate pies for lunch on a bench with an amazing panoramic view. This afternoon we went with Alex's niece Gina to a friends house for a swim which was lovely, apart from the fact Billy broke another phone (don't tell his parents!). The waterproof bag turned out to not be very waterproof at all. Very annoying! Tonight I think we're having a meal and a go in the spa (fingers crossed!). Should be good!

Lots of love

xxx