BTDU

Priorities first, congratulations to No.1 son Calum on your 25th birthday – 1st Qtr Century done – so no longer a callow youth😉🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Meanwhile, back in Rotorua the weather had changed for the better

So we took up Gail’s suggestion and all headed for the thermal pools at 8am…

…and what a tremendous way to start your day it was…

Feeling totally chilled from our hour long immersion in 38C, the next task was to grab a quick bite for breakfast – served by a young Maori rugby player, Dari (who was up for my usual game of trying to work out what position he played just by looking at his build; got it right again – he’s a 7 – so I’m now on a winning streak of 2 😉🏉), before we returned to Hamilton..

The ultimate destination for Julie and I, though, was Auckland…

The Kiwis love using corrugated sheet metal, principally as a roofing material, but also for fencing.

Passing back through Tirau it’s use for sculptures was a humorous alternative… 😉

The other thing we noticed was the large number of ginormous empty logging trucks heading South, presumably to their bases…🤔

When we arrived back in Hamilton the mercury was still climbing and was still high at 5.30 pm when we were on our train, aka The Northern Explorer (now up and running again after it’s earlier mechanical failure had resulted in us having to take a flight to from Wellington to Hamilton…)

Although, when we arrived at the station at 4 pm, we did have a Marie Celeste moment and would not have been surprised to see tumbleweed rolling about on the platform!

However, a tad late, our tourist train did eventually arrive…

These trains provide you wth headphones to listen to the pre-recorded commentary (in English or Japanese!) along this 2.5 hour stretch; we found it helpful to hear about the history of the changing landscapes, particularly that period in the 19th century when there was a lot of conflict between the Maori Iwi (tribes) and the British colonialists 😕.

Much of the Waikato region had been used for coal mining previously, but now there has been a big push to develop the wetlands to provide a wildlife habitat that also acts as a flood defence and carbon sink.

As you approach Auckland, by far the largest city in NZ, with a population similar to Glasgow (i.e. 3 times that of Edinburgh)

the traveller is reminded how much single storey accommodation, of varying quality. (NZ’s building regs have substantially improved now, but we’re once quite inadequate..) actually exists.

A government policy, KiwiBuild, to build 100,000 new, high standard homes over 10 years – with the majority in Auckland – for 1st time buyers has recently been abandoned; the standards were heavily criticised in some quarters, mainly for the poor levels of insulation required…

As Auckland city came into view we got our first reminder of why it is aka The City of Sails😊⛵

On a more pragmatic note, it is one of only 2 cities, along with the capital, Wellington, that offers passenger rail services; none exist on South Island…

After disembarking at the end of the line we got our first glimpse of this city…it didn’t disappoint 😊

These “toilet brush” variety of palms were seen frequently en route to our hotel, allegedly only 1.5 km away, and was all uphill…. needless to say I struggled as Julie went into overdrive…

We eventually arrived at our hotel, hoping there might be a de-fibrillator handy, opposite a rose park, and were pleased to find our 1st floor (aka Level 2 here) room had a wee balcony overlooking said park😊

Too tired at 7.45 pm to go anywhere else, we ate, very well again, in the hotel restaurant, then retired to our room, thoroughly convinced by now that we had brought too many clothes with us (and had also failed to account for a few indiscretions once we crossed the Equator 😉)…

…so we came up with a “cunning plan”🤔