Auckland

Today's the day ....................... to leave paradise

We left Waiheke on the nine o'clock ferry back to Auckland - very sad to be saying farewell to Kate, Lewis and Bonnie - and to be leaving such a beautiful place. It seemed a world away from the city skyscape of Auckland - and yet it's only a 35 minute journey on the fast ferryboat.

The rest of the day was spent driving south on State Highway 1 to Lake Taupo where we will spend the next few days. We stopped for lunch in Cambridge - an interesting place which a bit like Cambridge, England is in an area associated with the breeding of fine racing horses. There is a lovely bronze statue of a mare and foal outside the Town Hall.

Lake Taupo was looking magnificent in the setting sun by the time we found our B&B and got ourselves organised. This is a place to which tourists come in droves and everything is geared up to keeping them entertained. It seems so different from where we have come from - but I'm sure we'll find our own bit of paradise down here in due course .......................