Arrived in New Zealand and met up with Norman and Sheila (Lucy's parents) successfully at the airport. We're staying with them for a couple days whilst we explore Auckland, prior to picking up the camper van. In the evening we went out to a traditional sort of venue...an Irish Pub in the Viaduct Basin; a harbour in Auckland. Very nice steak and a pint of Speckled Hen at O'Hagans, certainly cheaper than Hong Kong. Lots of very expensive yachts and motor cruisers to look at.
Today we took the ferry over to Devonport and climbed Mount Victoria, an extinct volcano which isn't as high as the name suggests; a very short clamber to the top where there's a disappearing gun - a relic of when New Zealand was expecting to be invaded by Russia and they installed cannons on the Mount to repel invaders. The disappearing gun is a huge breech loading cannon that could fire a shell up to 5 miles, enough to deter any invaders perhaps - it was only fired once and then the locals all complained because the bang broke their windows.
We will probably be walking to the Auckland Museum in a bit for some culture, and hopefully to work off the large meal we just ate in the food court next to the harbour - GB should have food courts like they do out here, they're great.
Picking up the camper van tomorrow morning to start our travels around North Island, first stop Waitomo. Looking forward to having long queues of traffic behind me!
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