Day 19 - Homeward bound

But not before a last bit of tourism. Having dropped off luggage at the airport, and navigated to the Campervan depot in Auckland, we took a harbour tour which turned out to be quite varied. Good views of downtown Auckland, the surrounding area - north and south shores, and plenty of water borne vessels. These ranged from kyacks, old steamers and yachts to container ships with the playthings of multi-millionaires, the America's Cup racers and a cruise-liner in between. At one stage we slowed down to make our way through a yacht race.

We stopped off at Rangitoto island, the youngest island in the area (600years), a volcano and a reserve which the DOC is removing all vermin from. It has no soil, all the exposed ground is black although it is tree covered (Manuka which doesn't need to put roots into soil if I recall correctly) . On sunny days the temperature here can be significantly higher than in the city.

Travelling back we got a good view of Devonport and its North Head. This hosts gun placements and is riddled with tunnels, dating back to late 19th century in response to a possible Russian threat (never materialised) and then WWI & WWII. We went for a walk around here after our harbour tour. The tour carried on past a couple of naval ships, a sugar factory and a bungy jump at the Auckland harbour bridge, complete with a couple of bungy jumpers.

Following our walk around the guns and through the tunnels at North Head, we finished off the day with a last meal on one of the quays: A fine dinner of lamb (it came down to a coin toss between lamb and the seafood dishes) washed down with a bottle of Merlot Cabernet.

So our holiday in NZ comes to an end. Off to the airport for a 27hr trip back home. Hope you've enjoyed these reports (please do post a comment or drop us a line - it's nice to know who's been reading). The keen eyed will have seen that the last few postings are all a bit late - sorry it has taken us a bit of time to update - and yes we're back in Blighty! It's been a great holiday - we ended up taking around 500 photographs, but we'll spare you... click on the slideshow to see the selected highlights.

Now, on to hopefully a good British flying season...