After a very steep climb on a very hot day we made it!

We’re on the road!….. heading for the Easter Jazz festival at Tauranga.

We absolutely love this place! Just got ID’d to buy a bottle of wine in a supermarket……. they check all customers that look under 30! Good job we had passports with us!

Tauranga jazz festival…….. our kind of place – live music, sun, and a little grape and hop juice with a good view!

Also amazing to see trains whizzing by full of logs…. where are they heading to?

And the jetlag has gone! Especially when we were rudely awoken by……

Fortunately we were almost ready to leave on a 10 mile round trek to a volcano…. extinct for 15000 years! A great view from the top…..

And then off to the Auckland War Museum to catch up on the local history. The cultural Maouri show was excellent….

Good Friday and Easter Sunday means that most things are actually closed and they are unable to serve alcohol without a large meal.

At least the food will keep us sober! Ten out of ten for the Wither Hills pinot noir (even though it was on tap)

We had time for one more cocktail too..

And we have arrived and feel better for having had showers!

Quick stop off in Singapore and had to pop into their butterfly garden…..

Are we upstairs or downstairs?

T2 at Heathrow, sat in the lounge drinking jd and coke (Heather’s is neat! ) waiting for the flight…..

And we are packed…..