NZ has been fab as expected – already got too many photos to share so will be breaking them up into sections of the north island which we actually left 3 days ago – haven’t had too many opportunities to write the postcard until today – the first day of rain – what an outrage!

Well – we started in Auckland – which was beautiful and as we had fab weather we took full advantage and hit the hiking tracks, boat trips to surrounding islands and all things outdoors 😉 Waiheke Island was very pretty – rolling hills and flowers everywhere, vineyards (and sheep – there are a few in NZ after all 😉 ) and all surrounded by hundreds of bays and absolutely bright turquoise water……not a bad start……;-)

Things continued to improve as by some miracle we then had another fab weather day (you might have guessed we weren’t expecting great things of NZ weather-wise as it’s basically pretty much like the UK but until today all has been pretty good – yippee!!)……so….we managed to see one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen in sunshine J…it’s really hard to describe Great Barrier Island – it’s still stuck in the 40’s or 50’s……it’s a small isolated island (3 hours from Auckland by boat or an hour by 6 seater propeller plane – eeekkkkk)and the locals don’t seem to leave much as Auckland (a smallish and quietcity in reality) is realllllllllllly big and scary……the locals were friendly (if a touch spooky)……obviously their only form of entertainment is laughing at the tourists…they shared one communal tooth and the monthly supplies of goods shipped in clearly didn’t include either soap or toothpaste ;-)……and as they have some of the best scenery on earth I’m surprised that no reclusive dentists anywhere haven’t set up shop there……then again they might just think that an unnecessary excess of 21^st century living 😉

Auckland photo’s are at: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1F7Ur3tEqpXcPbKs1MUn04a6uk868jz_3?usp=sharing

Waiheke Island and Great Barrier Island photo’s are at: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1KQmYltucesW3V9rq5rYfGK0Mp6qk_rS8?usp=sharing

Anyway – Great Barrier Island – think rainforest, mountains, hot springs (Geoff plus hot springs + cold beer hiked in for miles = happy Geoff), deserted beaches (we seemed to be pretty much the only tourists on the island) as far as the eye can see, more turquoise water (they don’t bother with the boring Mediterranean blue stuff in the north island)…….rolling hills, farmland…..and more beaches….and you might have some idea of what it’s like…..frankly it’s been a hard act to follow….and it seems only a tiny number of NZ’ers have actually been there…I guess they’re all waiting bars in London and New York….ummmm…..bad choice…