From our UK departure on 5th February up until 11th February inclusive.
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5/6th Feb LONDON • AUCKLAND via Hong Kong

I knew that Air New Zealand was going to be be good but I am a little astounded that it is so good. We are 2 hours 45 minutes into the first leg of the flight (which left Heathrow exactly on time) and we have had our supper! Oh, boy, and what an experience that was! The meal had a choice of three main courses - navarin lamb with minted potatoes and crushed peas, spicy coconut and coriander prawn curry, chicken penne pasta. Several wines were on offer (New Zealand of course) and I chose the Pinot Noir, Mondillo which is produced in Central Otago (Dunedin country!) as well as a fabulous dessert wine, Forrest, which was a dessert wine to die for, described as straw gold in colour, and abounding with orange marmalade, apricot and toffee aromas on the nose, a sweet opulent palate with manuka honey and mandarin zest characters and a crisp lingering finish. Amen to that, I say.

The premium economy class is a serious upgrade from standard economy - much more legroom, properly reclining seats, and a vast array of in-flight entertainment including a live flight map and commentary. Our route so far has been as follows: Leaving London Heathrow at 9:00 pm we headed immediately east and crossed the North Sea to hit the european coast north of Germany, then tracking just north of east, slightly south of Copenhagen, off the south coast of Sweden, Lithuiania, Moscow, at which point I am ready to fall asleep, but, No, I can't do that, my Blog readers will never forgive me! So I had better mention the rest of the route just in case I succombe to the sleepy fever! We go now as follows: Nizhniy Novgorod, Kazan, south of Kirov, Lipek, Chelyabinsk, Urumqi, Hong Kong.

(Oh, this is an aside, I have just been told to go to the back of the plane on the starboard side and look out of the rear door window (thank you Adele) - Moscow at night! Local time is 3:35 am - sorry folks, no photo, not enough light for my camera but the live view takes the breath away!)

The loo is a bit of a palace! Two moisturisers, men's and women's, body lotion and facial cleanser are lined-up on the side of the wash basin and room to swing a cat (well, a smallish one, should you want to). [There are plenty of kittens on board, just been talking to a very pretty Chinese one, well ............ passes the time ;-)]. Hmmm, I do like Air New Zealand.

Every now and then the live flight video lapses into Mandarin so I am able to work on my Chinese language skills as we go! (Might come in handy later).

Well, it is coming up to 1:00 am UK time so I think I am going to need some sleep now, wailing children permitting, oh, well I'll give it a go!

It is 6:00 am and we are over Lanzhou, or close to it apparently and now flying south east. Sleep was difficult, but then it always is for me, so no change there then, LOL. The main problem with sleeping on a plane is the shape of the seats, am I the only one to notice this? Well we have been in the air for nine hours now so we must be landing in Hong Kong in about two hours. Breakfast in half an hour.

Breakfast was something of an 'out of body experience.' Any juice from a selection of about seven, fruit salad with kiwi fruit (naturally), pineapple, orange and a few other exotics, fruit yoghurt, croissante and marmalade. Then I was offered a 'main course' or rather a choce of two main courses, both quite superb. Wow!

So we have arrived at Hong Kong airport and we have to disembark for two hours or so. But it is all very civilised and the airport is beautiful, and spotless of course, exactly as you would expect a Chinese-managed airport to be, this is, after all, a civilised country which rather puts our pathetic amateurish efforts to shame. And we find an exhibition of traditional Chinese culture right here in the departure lounge!

We are on time leaving on the second leg of the journey and again we are treated to a gourmet meal - I am in love with New Zealand already and I haven't even got there yet! Our route takes us over Manila, in the Phillipines and then in a more-or-less straight line to the northern tip of Australia at Cairns and then on to Auckland where we should arrive at 11:00 am local time on Sunday (Ahhhhhhh! where did Saturday go?) Well it's late again, oh, or is it? I really have no idea what the time is - I just know that UK time is about midnight (Saturday)! For now just let me sleep (as WilF's poem says).

4:30 am (We are .... somewhere!) and I am awake again. We are somewhere over erm .......... oh, God will we EVER get there? We are a 'bit' off northern Australia (ish) so only about 6 hours to go, or so! Is the whole of the rest of the world asleep? 6:45 am, I take a look at the flight map again and I see that we have been flying down the north-east coast of Australia (the straight bit) for the last 4 hours more-or-less. Oh, well, another of those gourmet breakfasts is about to appear and we shall have to eat it; it's a hard life (but someone has to live it)! There is a certain excitement in our 'party' as the sun is just coming up and we might be able to see the Australian coast! But, no, it's a false dawn, we are too far away and in any case there is far too much cloud (yes, they do cloud down here).

With all these instruments it must be easy flying one of these things! This is part of the in-flight live display which makes for a quite interesting gadget!	Cantonese Opera Costume displayed as part of an exhibition in The departure lounge at Hong Kong airport.	Our Boeing 777 being restocked at Hong Kong Airport. Completely restocked and cleaned thoroughly within just over one hour.

The Arrivals hall at Auckland greets you with this amazing gateway. We are definitely entering a New World! Unexpectedly, there seem to be a lot of Chinese influences here and there are a lot of Chinese and other Asian people here (so I definitely know I will enjoy Auckland, now). We have not been outside yet but the temperature is reported as a quite comfortable 26 degrees.	Goodbye Boeing 777. We have only just left the plane and already the service teams are 'in there' cleaning and restocking for the next flight out. They all work so hard! My goodness and so do the planes, they must spend nearly all their time in the air to be economical. By the way, Air New Zealand apparently only do this one long-haul flight London-HK-Auckland; all their other flights are 'local' to New Zealand.	This is a reflection of the Auckland Sky Tower in the windows of a high-rise building opposite. Strangely, when you turn 180 degrees the tower is not there, only another high-rise block (the one in the reflection under the tower). The tower itself is behind the building but is, of course, vastly taller

7th Feb AUCKLAND arrival at 11:00 am local time in Auckland, coach transfer to the Crowne Plaza Hotel, situated in the Central Business District of ‘The City of Sails’, and will be our base for the next three nights. The basement (four floors) is described as 'one of New Zealands most exciting shopping complexes (but, trust me, it's much better than that), at the bottom is a traditional Chinese Food Hall (reminiscent of Singapore) where we go later for our early dinner, Italian tonight! Late this afternoon, after catching up on a LITTLE sleep we wander out discover some of the city and the waterfront. And so to bed .... at 11:00 pm and I did sleep fitfully until just after 4:00 am so I guess that was quite good for me.

Penguins are kept here, they say in ideal conditions as they would find in the wild in Antarctica and we were allowed to view them from a snow buggy. The penguins didn't SEEM to mind all those tourists, but then, as I don't speak penguin ..........	The marine aquarium was interesting for me; lots of local species and a lecture to keep me out of trouble.	On Mount Eden you get a complete 360 degree vista but the one man-made feature that draws the eye is still that damn Sky tower!

8th Feb AUCKLAND Today we took a leisurely tour of Auckland city, bounded by two harbours, the Waitemata and Manukau, which gave us many glimpses of the most stunning city landscapes. Our first stop is to the summit of an dormant volcanic cone, Mount Eden, which affords amazing panoramic vistas of the whole region; we are able to scan around the 360 degree panorama taking in the Pacific Ocean to the east and panning around to the Tasman Sea in the west. One Tree Hill, where the ‘Father of Auckland’ Sir John Logan Campbell lies. Then we continue to Kelly Tarlton’s Antarctic Encounter where there is an interesting 'Scott of the Antarctic' museum (with live penguins!) and a 'walk-through' aquarium with many local species represented. We were lucky enough to be there for the daily lecture on Rays which was most interesting. Our morning concluded with a stroll through Parnell Village, a favourite shopping area with locals with its quaint Victorian-style shops, boutiques and restaurants. We opted to buy fresh fruit at a local greengrocers and to sit in one of the many parks to eat our lunch. The coach driver, Peter does a nice line in Kiwi jokes and seems to have the measure of what things are like these days in merrie England too! I may have to become an asylum seeker here..... As I write this I notice that it is 2:00 am in the UK but 3:00 pm here, no wonder I feel a little strange ..... May go for a ferry ride across the harbour later and we have plans for a slightly more exciting excursion tomorrow; catch you later (web access permitting). Do email me via the link or leave a message in the chat room - or both if you are feeling particularly brave!

So, it is 4:30 pm and we decide that we will take the ferry across Waitemata Harbour to Devonport; you will remember that Waitemata Harbour opens onto the Pacific Ocean (keep up at the back there!) and take a stroll around that waterside suburb of Auckland. We take the 5:00 pm ferry which turns out to be one of the main ones used by people returning home from work which makes for a nice cozy journey. Walking around Devonport would indicate that this is quite an upmarket area but it is still a very friendly one. We stop to chat with several people and one man has just come home from work, put on his swimming trunks and literally popped over the road to the harbour for a swim. There are a number of restaurants here but after a tour of inspection they all seem a tad expensive so we decide that we will wait until we get back to the other side of the harbour before eating. In the event the Crowne Plaza food hall is closed so we go across the road to another that stays open until 9:00 pm; this one has about eight different eateries, Chinese, Indian, Malay, Thai, Mexican, Sushi amongst them so even Ronnie can find something to her taste. The food halls tend to be non-alcoholic so that forces us to be virtuous and for both of us that is not in the slightest a problem.

Leaving Auckland by water to go across the Waitemata Harbour to Devonport reveals this waterside view which is not unlike many waterside cities worldwide. The overall impression though is that it is very like England but with a SLIGHTLY foreign air to it.	Devonport waterfront is quite different even though it is only 10 minutes away by ferry. It is a very pleasant residential area with an upmarket aura but also a very friendly feel.	Sleep has not been a great feature of the journey so far ..... perhaps tonight ............

9th Feb AUCKLAND Today we have decided to take an optional excursion with a small local company, by minibus with only 20 in the party. They are called 'Bush and Beach' and so Stan and Warren are taking us to the west coast outside Auckland. We spend most of the morning having a lazy time, much to the annoyance of our room maid (who is Zambian and reminds us both of Carol) but we eventually emerge for breakfast at 9:30 and apologise to her who in turn apologises for 'being a nuisance'! We avoid the Crowne Plaza canteen this morning and head off to a coffee shop that we found yesterday where we have pancakes with maple syrup, scrambled egg with salmon and a large macchiato each, and a proper macchiato that is a worthy contender for the true Spanish cortado!

So we leave on our excursion at 12:30 having consumed our usual fruit lunch beforehand and, as I mentioned we head out west from the city through what our guide surprisingly calls 'blue collar' suburbs. [Aside: I was under the impression that NZ was a truly classless society but I am coming to the conclusion that this is a bit of veneer that has been stuck-on to the publicity for foreign consumption; I have not fully made my mind up about this but I am continually hearing little snippets of conversation which may lead me astray ... or not, we shall see]. Our first stop is the Arataki Park Centre. Arataki Park overlooks a large water supply reservoir and the Manukau Harbour (that's the 'other' one, which opens to the Tasman Sea; still keeping up at the back?) There are wonderful views to downtown Auckland, the Sky Tower (naturally) and in the far distance, the Pacific Ocean. At the visitor centre we meet several of NZ's indigenous animal and plant species and I am surprised to find that the truly indigenous land fauna of New Zealand are so few in number, most of them have already become extinct and been replaced by incoming species, some deliberately brought in like the possum, others accidentally, allegedly like the rabbit. The possum has become 'fauna non grata' and unlike in Australia where it is a protected species, is hunted and killed remorselessly, otherwise, we are told the possi would be taking over! [Strictly it's called the Bush-Tailed Possum]. The New Zealanders have discovered that it is possible to mix possum wool with merino wool to produce a very soft, luxurious and highly insulating yarn and cloth for making items like gloves, hats and woolovers (sorry Poli, couldn't resist that word). Some of the main indigenous birds are: Tui, similar to blackbird but with white tufts on chest and iridescent green wings. Kereru, or wood pigeon, but a lot bigger than our one, Fantail, a small friendly bird that follows people though the forest eating the insects that their feet stir-up, distictive because of its fan-like tail. Pukeko, black and blue NZ swamp bird, red beak and feet, one of few native birds to have flourished since the arrival of man.

We leave this place and, still heading west we come to Karekare which has a waterfall in a glade tumbling down the mountainside on its way to the Tasman Sea and so we stop here for a short walk (bit of a challenge for some of the group but all do make it). Its claims to fame are that scenes from an Oscar-winning film 'The Piano' were shot on this beach in 1993 (no good asking me about movies) but more recently New Zealand's award winning entry at the Chelsea Flower Show was designed by a local woman and inspired by the Karekare area. I am amused to find that we have a wonderful photo-opportunity here but no one else realises that it IS possible to photograph the waterfall without dozens of tourists in the picture (I keep quiet about it).

Next we head off to Piha which I am intrigued about, mainly because the Air New Zealand cabin steward that 'looked after' us on the HK to NZ leg of our flight was very, very attentive to Ronnie, told me he was jealous of me for having such an attractive wife, as I was talking to him (standing in the que for the loo) and said that he lives on the beach at Piha. [Well I looked for him but he was not on the beach today]. I presume 'on the beach' is some sort of NZ for 'my house is near the beach'! Anyway, enough of the ramblings, we had a few minutes slightly challenging walk to the beach and were intrigued to be shown with a small magnetic demonstration by Stan that the mainly black sand is heavily spiked with iron and titanium which has been found to be commercially viable for the extraction of these metals along with some manganese and others. They say that the sand and Piha itself originated as dust from a volcano some 250 kms away.

I am convinced NZ is the 'home' of Manuka honey as the Manuka is very widespread here. It is a bush or small tree with white daisy-like flowers in early summer. The honey in its strongest and purest form is has been found to have remarkable anti-bacterial qualities. Scientific research has shown that the honey will kill all common skin bacteria so it is used in antibiotic creams and on medical dressings to treat ulcers and pressure sores.

The dormant Auckland Volcanic Field, around the central suburbs, contains 48 volcanoes that have formed over the last 150,000 years. About 20 million years ago, a huge undersea volcano offshore from Piha ejected enormous quantities of rocks that were eventually compressed into a conglomerate up to 300 metres thick. Tectonic movement lifted this layer to form the Waitakere Ranges. Much later, about 2 million years ago, two rows of volcanic vents formed. One along the present coastline and the other along the Scenic Drive. 'Lion Rock' at Piha and 'The Watchman' at Karekare are lava plugs formed when tose vents stopped erupting.

View over the reservoir from Arataki Centre with view of the Manukau Harbour in the distance; this harbour is Auckland's second harbour and is connected to the tasman Sea	I was quite pleased with this shot of the Karekare waterfall. Whilst the crowd gathered on the pool shoreline to get in each others' way, I slipped into the bushes off to the side .......	Ronnie (Vera) enjoying the Karekare Rainforest walk. Not very far because some of the group are slightly challenged but most do get on with it without protest.

Tomorrow we leave the big city of Auckland behind and head south to Rotorua where we hope to encounter more of the real New Zealand!

10th Feb AUCKLAND • ROTORUA We say goodbye to this cosmopolitan city as we travel south by coach to Glenbrook where we have a charter booking on a restored railway train. And what a welcome we receive from the (entirely volunteer) staff - we spend a happy hour on the train, a restored 1915 locomotive (Ww644) with two carriages. We travel a few miles up the line, passing through scenery very reminiscent of the best rolling landscapes to be be found in Britain. On the return journey we stop off at the engine repair sheds which have been brought back into use by the volunteer engineers. Some of us want to stay longer chatting to the guys who are enjoying themselves doing repairs and restorations. I meet someone who came to New Zealand from Leeds 35 years ago and says he has never looked back; he has worked as a toolmaker here and so we chatted for some time about Alfred Herberts and other British machine tool makers. This gentleman now does one afternoon a week using his engineering skills as a volunteer for the Glenbrook Railway Preservation Society, and he seems to me to be a very contented man! I told him that Ronnie and I considered emigrating to New Zealand about that long ago (35 years) but decided we had too many responsibilities at home so we did nothing about it. Well, he said, you are not too late! Apparently it is POSSIBLE for retirees to settle here, so we may have to look at that!

After that we continue to the to the famous geothermal town of Rotorua, where on arrival we check-in to the Heritage Hotel. This afternoon a guided walking tour of Whakarewarewa (pronunciation: Faka-rewa-rewa, best to get it right first time!) has been arranged. This is a thermal village where we are met by a Maori Guide named Anita and we were able to share the knowledge and rich cultural heritage of the indigenous people as well as seeing the natural phenomena of boiling mud pools and erupting geysers. We round off the day by participating in a Maori hangi (feast) and enjoy some traditional entertainment at the hotel. Actually in the event and after eating both Ronnie and I are so exhausted that we slope off to our room and collapse into bed.

Glenbrook Station, they all made us so welcome and it certainly made us men happy! Some of the ladies seemed to enjoy themselves too!	Some gen on the locomotive that hauled us today (self-explanatory, of course).	Herself in the driving seat (Huh, no change there then!)

Anita, our Maori Guide for our visit to Whakarewarewa village. She was a little bit scary at first, well she scared the pants off me, anyway (erm .... no, perhaps I had better rephrase that ........ ) but actually very kind and patient with us all.	Everywhere around here is hot, hot, hot! Boiling water, steam and bubbling mud just coming up out of the ground!	This is the village hungi, or cooking pot where the water is always above 90 degrees celsius. Tradition says the pit is bottomless.

11th Feb ROTORUA Today we are strolling through Rainbow Springs, set in delightful surroundings of native habitat, where natural pools are home to hundreds of brown and brook trout and where the New Zealand icons, the elusive Kiwi and Tuatara may be seen. We continue to the Agrodome for an interesting farm show where the skills of mustering, shearing, milking and the use of sheep dogs are demonstrated. Close to the Bath House are the Polynesian Pools where a soak in one of the warm steamy mineral pools is highly recommended to relieve you of any aches and pains [YES, Don]. The remainder of the day is free to relax or enjoy any of Rotorua’s other attractions. So Don is working on the Blog, Ronnie has been doing the washing and then a little sleep, now I feel that I want a swim as I am told the pool is at 35 degrees!

Don's turn for the photo opportunity, hmmmm who's that new friend in there?	Kauri tree, a conifer that grows profusely in the northern part of north island once covered a million hectares of the north but now only 7400 hectares of mature forest remain.	This is the bird that all the shouting is about; the Kiwi, the species is now endangered mainly because of predation and so there are several breeding programmes including one at Rainbow Springs.

OK, that finishes the Week 1 page (for now anyway, but I may come back and do some 'tweaking' later if time permits). We move on to Week 2 page tomorrow and I will try hard to keep up-to-date!

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