In New Zealand at last



Diane & Simon's house

We’ve arrived in New Zealand and are currently spending a few days staying with friends, Diane & Simon in their lovely timber-built house in Auckland. The house is an unusual design and has lots of glass. The room we are currently sleeping in has a glass roof, which is amazing to wake up to in the morning.

Glass roof to our bedroom

The summer has been pretty dire here so far and it was raining on Sunday when we arrived. Yesterday and today the sun has been out and it is really lovely, although not particularly warm. We've now bought a tent and also picked up our hire car. The tent is rather larger than we realised – it's a 4 person tent, but is large enough to fit the car inside! Never mind, we did a trial pitch earlier today and it was easy enough.

Diane checking out the tent

 The car on the other hand is a little on the small side, but I'm sure will be fine with the back seats folded flat. It's also remarkably scruffy for a hire car – the bonnet is completely covered in stone chips – but at least they won't notice a few extra ones! It's a Toyota Vitz, which we think is the same as a Yaris.

Today we've been out for our first 'tramp'. For those who don't know, in New Zealand, what we Brits call trekking or hiking is known as tramping – so our blog title doesn't really mean that we are going to become tramps, although who knows! Anyway, the tramp was a couple of hours through bush and with intermittent views of the sea. The bush here is really interesting as it consists of all sorts of ferns and trees that are completely different to the ones at home. The mid point of our tramp was where the picture of Ian and I was taken, and is the beach where the film 'The Piano' was filmed.

 

Tomorrow we're off to an island just off the coast from Auckland where we hope to hire bikes and visit a local vineyard or two. Watch this space.