New Zealand 2

Friday, Jan. 26th, 07: Auckland City. By bus we reached the city in 3/4 of an hour, and could visit there a lot, as e.g. the old Post office building (now railway station), the old Ferry building, walk through the harbour (a sailing competition was near), old ships, Queens street, a market (AOTEA), Albert park near the university, bus to New Market (window shopping, rest at a coffee house), bus to Parnell, walk there, large Anglican Cathedral (outside), and home by bus, to a NZ meal.

Sat. Jan. 27th, 07: Visit to our/Stoffels good friend PAT. Starting by foot along the beach walkway to Browns bay we went to the house of Pat for a long chat and a snack, also to see Rosemary (we also knew her from our last visit). After a shopping stop at 'The Warehouse' at Browns bay, and after that we went for a swim to Long Bay - every day the water temperature improved, and there were many people for the special long weekend at Auckland (Sat-Mon free).

Sun. Jan. 28th, 07: Excursion by car in direction to the north, first Leigh Marine Reserve opposite Goat island: for the weekend there were a lot of people as never experienced by our hosts. Guenter went snorkeling, the others could watch also from outside water a lot of colorful types of fish there. After that Fish-and-chips from Leigh was eaten at Daniels Reef, a very scenic steep reef, few surfers only. For dessert we went to "Morris & James"-cafe, (where they sell their ceramics, too) and continued to TAWHARANUI regional park and beach, waves were quite strong, sun was nice until, at the end, we had to escape a strong rain and drove back to Auckland to have a dinner there, tired but happy.