Auckland

Okay so we made it here safely but before I tell you more about NZ how about I backtrack slightly?

Singapore - well it was certainly hot. The heat hits you like a wall every time you leave a building but strangely you quickly get used to it. It is coming into Monsoon season so it was no real surprise we got soaked on Thursday morning. We spent most of the time in Singapore shopping or at least browsing but when there are quite so many shops it is hard not to. The malls come one after the other and are HUGE. So a fair bit of jade was purchased.

The city tour was included and was interesting enough but was very much a case of everyone off the bus, take photos and then back on again. Photo of the Merlion (symbol of Singapore is the picture above).

The airport at Changi is amazing as it is mostly glass and wide open spaces. Also Duty Free comes straight after passport control and security is just before the gates. We will have no problems spending 6 hours there on the way home.

The flight down was not too bad and flys by when you have the choice of so many movies, tv shows and CDs all on your own screen. We even had a magnum for dessert! We have managed to have Singapore Slings on each flight and I can imagine that a pitcher of them would go down rather well so must see if I can find a recipe when I'm home. Okay, so we didn't have one in Raffles but Mum didn't seem that fussed and at about a tenner each they were a little pricey.

Having had the dog at Auckland airport jump onto my rucksack as he could smell where I'd had tangerines in there previously (they are very strict about food imports) we had a nice bloke holding a card with our names on meet us, take our bags and whisk us into Auckland in a lovely Merc!

Hotel is quite central and pleasant enough. Today we have explored all round, been down to the harbour and then up the Sky Tower. You could walk round the outside of the Sky Tower or jump off it but we decided against both. We've picked up our car and tomorrow we head to the Glow Worm caves and then on to Rotorura where our room is supposed to have a view of the Geyser!

Interesting facts
Auckland is made up of lots of volcanoes - none seemed too active today though.
Auckland is the biggest city in New Zealand although not the capital.
Singapore is only 1 degree north of the equator.
Singapore has 4 official languages of English, Chinese, Malay and Tamal.

Right well that's probably enough from me for now.