Arrived in Auckland to be met by a haaka and other Maori songs - not directly for us, but very touching. Then Shirley camerunnig in and we enjoyed the singing together.

Off to the centre of Auckland then to book in to our hotel for a guided tour of the city for two days with our good friends, Shirley and Rich. They have gone above and beyond to show us the country they emigrated to 10 years ago - that is how long it’s taken us to actually co e over here to visit them. Better late than never, I hear you say. We walked for miles; poor Chris’s legs suffered a bit. We ended up at the harbour where we enjoYed a fabulous meal and sunset at a place called the Y not. Then we crashed for the night after two solid days of travel.

Next morning, we were up bright and early to go to the Sky Tower where the views of the city were panoramic. We spent a while there and then decided to take a boat over to Devonport Village.

It is a quaint place with touches of colonial and Victorian architecture and ever so clean. There are lots of cafes and a few shops, most of which were closed as it was Sunday afternoon when we arrived.

We settled into a lovely cafe called Correli’s which had a great atmosphere matching its food and drink. I had the first mojito of the holiday and Shirley had a Pimms. Chris had her favourite, banana milkshake and said it was a good one too.

We then meandered back down the street via the supermarket to stock up on nibbles for the evening. Back, the. On the boat after a quick visit to the beach to see Auckland across the bay before climbing aboard the boat and heading back to the city.

The following morning, we packed up and headed to Whakatane via Hobbiton to see the film set of the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films.

I was truly impressed with both the countryside and the features of this magical place. We wandered down a long dusty road on a Hobbiton bus to the car park and immediately walked through the narrow stone walled pathway that is seen at the beginning of the first film.

fromthere, the hobbit holes just kept appearing, with many props and real fruit trees sprinkled all over the site. It took about an hour and a half to walk round it all, taking many photos for the family film fans back home, before we came upon the Green Dragon pub where we were in for a real treat - beer, either ginger or real - a welcome finish to a hot and wonderful trip. Pity Bilbo was away on another adventure, but you will see hobbits in the photos we took 🤣🤣