The original plan was to spend only few days in Auckland as we thought we would run out of time, but we managed to squeeze in a good trip of the north island with Mike and Adrienne. The airport pick up was pure lux for us, as the arrival at a new airport is normally more complicated, with no accommodation booked and only a vague idea of where to go to. We headed for Auckland on the first day, getting a good feel of the beaches and great view from the top of the Sky Tower with Simone praying I won't decide to bungee jump from there !! We moved to the harbour where the America's Cup boats were anchored to remind us which country we were visiting!! We then headed north to catch on yummy fish'n'chips which we enjoyed in the car (yes restaurants close at 8 pm and the outside temperature was far from tropical). Mike and Adrienne reminded us we should start thinking about buying a house in a nice location, when they showed us the piece of land where they are planning to build their nest... 40 metres from a beach and a golf course at the back would also be a location we would look forward to settle in!!!
It was rugby time and we (Mike especially) would have not taken any room without TV for the France-NZ game which was on at 8am in the morning. Clearly we booked the only motel without a TV and the owner did not really understand why we decided for another location just to watch a world cup quarter final... luckily Adrienne's cousins' husband was in the whereabouts (2hrs away) and generously offered a roof for the 4 of us and a supportive team to watch the rugby the next morning. Everyone knows what happened so it took a while to cheer up the Kiwis who were taking it on the referee and deciding to stay well far from French champagne for the next 4 years !!
The hot water beach was what we needed to cheer up and so we digged a nice pool by the beach where the hot water coming from underground was keeping us warm and relaxed. From there we headed to the thermal land around Rotorua where the volcanic activity is strong. Craters, fumaroles and lava alternate themselves to lakes of the most unnatural colour (yellow, orange, red, etc). It was a nice walk through the park before a fun afternoon on the luge, speeding down the mountain and having a great day... The girls would have never accepted our programme if we hadn't promised to take them to the Spa where hot mineral spring waters massaged our tired bodies.
The time we had in New Zealand was great and regretted not having longer to visit the south island, but at least we will have a good excuse to return.
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