Day 2

Yesterday we drove into town, not too far and not much traffic. We parked on the water front for $6 for 3 hours. That gave us enough time to do the water front and a good part of Queen Street, the shopping street. We then took a nice drive along the water with excellent views of the harbour and the city. Stopped for lunch on the water and had a beer, ice tea, and shared a plate of nachos. Total bill $23.

There is a free bus that you can take around the city. You can get on and off as you want. It takes about 30 minutes to do the circle.

For those of you that do not have cars the following info is how you can get to the hotel or downtown from the airport.

' The airport lies about 20kms sw of Auckland. Travel options to and from the airport include taxi, shuttle bus and airbus. Taxis take about 30 minutes and cost from $40 to $50. Not too bad if 4 are sharing. Shuttle buses cost $20 to $26 per person but take a bit longer, as they pick up and drop off en route. The Airbus pick up and drops off at a wide range of hotels every 20 minutes from 5am to 10 pm. It costs $15 one way and $22 return.

A few people have asked about cell phones for NZ. The best way is to purchase one here. The lowest price I have found is $75. Then you have to purchase a SIM card for $35. This includes $5 worth of calling time. If you log on to register you will get another $10 of calling time. It will cost $.89 a minutes anywhere in NZ and home to Canada. If you text you can do that for $.20 or $.30 back to Canada. Text message is a good way to communicate shot messages. Another option is to bring a world phone from home. Have it unlocked here for $50 and then purchase the SIM card. Once your phone is unlocked you can use it almost anywhere in the world plus you have a better phone. My Blackberry costs me $.99 cents to call and receive in NZ and $2 a minute to call NA or receive a call from NA. It cost me about $.05 to receive email.

Email in downtown Auckland was $3 an hour.

Today's trip took us south a bit through a national park with all kinds of green and lush vegetation. We ended up at Piha a surfing beach on the west side of the island with some good waves pounding in on the rocks and the beach.

We use three hotels in Auckland, the Formula 1, the Mercur Windsor and the Quadrant. I visited the first two yesterday to see if they were still of the same standard. The Formula is a budget hotel, good location, small room, with fridge, stove and microwave and small balcony. The rate can be as low as $69. A clean place for those that want a budget property and room for a night or two. Not much room to turn around. The Mercure is an older hotel and very close to the harbour. It also has small rooms. This hotel is about $140 a night. I will check in at the Quadrant later in the week.

Remember hotel rooms in Australia and NZ are like those in Europe, very small. Do not come thinking you will get a NA hotel room like the Westin.