Auckland - the City of Sails & Christmas Number 1!

We spent a couple of weeks in Auckland staying with my dad's cousin Huw (we needed to spend some time relaxing after the hectic schedule we had in South America).

We caught up with Susan, Martin, Karen & Kayto from our trip in Peru and had dinner in Occidental, a Belgian bar, before heading to the Viaduct and to one of the many pubs there!

We got on the Auckland Explorer bus and did a tour of the city. We went up to Bastion Point and got some great views of the city. We walked along the bay and saw why Auckland is called the City of Sails - there are so many sailing boats here! The road here is lined with Pohutakawa trees - the NZ Christmas tree. They have bright red flowers which are in bloom over Christmas.

We headed up to the Cathedral and saw the smaller St Mary's Church, which they had moved from the other side of the road (on rollers!) We then went to the museum. That night we met up with Kate's dad's cousin Graham and his wife Jo and went for dinner with them.

The next day we did the Coast to Coast walk - a 16km walk across the width of the city. We walked through Auckland Domain (a massive park), up Mount Eden and One Tree Hill and finally to Manukau harbour.

We also went to Rangitoto Island, which lies in the harbour. We climbed to the crater (it is an extinct volcano) and took the coastal track back. The views of the city were great.

At the weekend, we had an early Christmas celebration as Huw's son Gareth and his girlfriend Denise were leaving for the states. Kate and I had made (or rather decorated!) a yule log and put up the Christmas tree and decorations. There were about 10 of us for dinner and it was strange celebrating Christmas when the sky is blue and there is no need for jumpers!!!