It's now Sunday morning and I feel refreshed after a good night's sleep. It looks as though it will be a lovely day. Carolyn has made me feel very welcome. It feels good to be back in New Zealand.
The short flight - well, around 3 hours, but it felt short after the two previous long ones - from Sydney to Auckland was not all that enjoyable. Very crowded plane and very little leg room. I had requested a window seat as I was looking forward to the view on the approach into Auckland but my 'window seat' was in fact next to a wide pillar between two windows so I could see nothing at all. I felt cheated! For once my luggage arrived at the carousel the same time as me. Immigration went smoothly and I was out of the airport within 20 minutes of landing. Carolyn was waiting for me. It took half an hour to drive to the small town of Pokeno, south of Auckland, where she lives and we spent a quiet evening chatting and eating dinner. I had a much needed shower and managed to stay awake until around 9pm when I retired thankfully to bed.
Today, Sunday, has been my first full day in New Zealand. After a slow start to the day Carolyn took me out to see a bit of her local area. Her nearest big town is Pukekohe where we stopped for coffee. From there we went to The Glenbrook Vintage Railway where we had a trip to Waiuku and back on a wonderfully restored old train pulled by a gleaming old steam engine. www.gvr.co.nz
After that rare treat it was lunchtime so Carolyn drove us to Wrights Water Gardens - a water lily 'farm'. We had a lovely lunch in the cafe there followed by a walk around the water lily ponds to the impressive waterfall. www.wrightswatergardens.co.nz
The day ended by a quiet evening indoors sipping chilled white wine. It has been a very warm day today with the temperature in the high 20's. Lovely!
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