January 4th

Hey all!
Our first day in Auckland involved a lot of walking, like 6 hours worth! we took in the viaduct and the harbour, pretty much all of downtown Auckland, and a few areas that we didn't mean to. We had a few issues figuring out the GPS (and what direction was what) and wound up taking more than a few wrong turns. The city is beautiful with an eclectic mix of modern and old architecture side by side all over the place. We have been using the sky tower (tallest structure in the southern hemisphere) as a landmark to find our way back to our hostels etc. we are currently in a funky hostle that favours the colors purple and lime green together- even the blankets on the beds are bright green and purple! But hey its clean and the people are super friendly. Today we took the harbour ferry over to Devonport- a suburb of Auckland. It was developed mostly in the Victorian era so the houses all look like little ginger bread cottages, except the big ones which look like gingerbread mansions. Its really really pretty. we took a tour bus that took us around the area and told a bit f the history as well as took us to two extinct volcano cones which provided a great view of all of Auckland. Also got to see some army tunnels and barracks and a huge military gun that shot 8 inch rounds (it was only fired once and the force of it cracked windows in the town below and due to citizen complaints it was never fired again). There were also what they call "New Zealand Christmas Trees" they are a really pretty leafy tree that blooms right around Christmas time with bright red somewhat spiky flowers and are aparently only found on the costal areas of the North Island. Tonight I think we are going to check out the market place and perhaps eat supper in one of the pubs on high street.
Tomorrow we are planning on heading up to Goat Island Marine Reserve to camp for a night and spend the day snorkeling in the reserve. you can rent snorkle gear for the whole day so we plan to make the most of it and try out our cameras for a bit before we tackle diving at Poor Knights.

Well, for now we will say our goodbyes and hope to be in touch again soon,
Take care everybody!
Miles and Bri