After a very long flight we arrived!!!!  Left on the 1st and arrived on the 3rd completely missing the 2nd. Thank you to our great friends that helped us get here and the lovely parties we had as a send off.  Thanks to my work partners for allowing me this time off work.
  The plants here are tropical and Rory made lemonade from the lemon tree outside his window.  We are staying in a wonderful house outside of Auckland about 15 K.  Karen and David have graciously offered their lovely house while they are at their beach house.  We will visit them in a week or so at the beach.  They are friends of Ruth's from 20 years ago when she bicycled N to S with her boyfriend.
 The town of Auckland is large and has about 25% of the population of NZ.  The aquarium has many penguins and sea horses which are amazing.  Auckland is the only place in the world that breed these special Sea Horses.  Rory has been swimming in the bay already and ice cream has been eaten.  We are off today for our first "tramp"( hike) in Waitakere today, a park near Auckland.