Auckland at night.

This is the first time we have arrived any where at night and it has probably been our scariest arrival-but we made it.

We left the Bay of Islands rather sadly on a glorious morning. We had 'Breakfast Pies' home made by our hosts, on the deck in lovely sun this morning. Had we not been eating with two
American couples at the time I would have photographed them.

Before leaving we hopped to the other side of the peninsula to look at Long Beach where some early morning swimmers were already making a start to the day. A quick visit to Pahia and on to Waitangi for a coffee before departing for the main route south.

No time to stop this time as we were visiting an old friend who is staying with her daughter and son in law in Puhoi just north of Auckland. It was delightful to see them in a lovely new home at the end of this historic village. Jenny is Chris's Goddaughter but we haven't seen here since she was about 10. She now has two little girls of her own who are going to love growing up here in New Zealand. Her husband is from Bradford and is a Rugby League fan so we had lots to catch up on. They made us a lovely BBQ fish and steak dinner despite having an unexpected power cut. This made a lovely ending to the penultimate day of our holiday except we still had to negotiate getting into Auckland and it was coming dark!
We made it but needed a drink in the bar after checking in, from where I took this shot. It is the Town Hall and the Sky Tower from Queens Street. ( We have a similar view from our room). Just been reading up on what you can do from or on the Sky Tower - think we will be giving those a miss!