Our time in Auckland...

We arrived at Craig and Stephen's Saturday afternoon, in time to get ready and go to the Auckland Starlight Symphony. This picture was taken in their lovely back yard.

Lee, me, John and Stephen at the Auckland Starlight Symphony - before the starlight! It's like Opera in the Park - everyone brings a picnic, and of course, lots of wine! Wonderful!! As it gets dark, there is a laser light show, and fireworks. They close the symphony with the 1812 Overature, complete with cannons! It's an amazing sensory experience - laser lights, fireworks, music and cannons!! It was unlike anything I had ever experienced!

Lee and I dancing to a waltz - they invited the crowd to join in the dance, and our blanket-mates encouraged us to dance! It almost looks like I know what I'm doing!

Annual General Picnic!! 17th annual, was held at a lovely park south of Auckland. We had the luxury of having a house to use, which allowed the AGP committee to spend the weekend there and not have to do set-up and tear-down all in one day. I think they enjoyed that! Above is the AGP flag that flies at each picnic, and has a patch with the theme for every year for the last 17 years!

Some of the picnic-goers, enjoying champagne! As you can see, it was another beautiful New Zealand day.

The picnic is a potluck. The theme this year was "wild things", and we had an amazing array of wonderful food!

In the lower left-hand corner, you can see Jo's wonderful baked fish! Lots of "wild" veggies, too, including mushrooms that were picked from the field.

No one went hungry!

Gathered around the AGP flag. Everyone is looking forward to the 20th AGP, which will be held in Crete!!

The Monday after the AGP was Stephen's birthday! Here's a picture of Lee and I with Craig's Mum and brother, Mark. We all went out to a lovely Thai restaurant to celebrate the occasion.

Stephen at the restaurant.

Stephen's birthday gift from Craig and his Mum and Mark - it's beautiful in their dining room, and as you can see, Stephen really liked it!

After our trip to the North land, Craig and Stephen took us north of Auckland on the Tasman sea, to visit a gannett colony and see some more spectacular scenery. I bet you're getting bored with all these blue skies! : )

Beautiful coastline with great waves!

Note the gannetts on the flat rocks on either side of the inlet.

There were hundreds of them! We also saw fuzzy little chicks. It was great to watch these large birds gliding on the currents. They build their nests right on top of the rocks.

This is the Auckland Sky Tower - the tallest building in the southern hemisphere. Lee had never been there before, so we visited it, and went up to the highest point. For a modest sum ($200), you can bungy-jump off of the tower! And for slightly less, you can suit up, get into a harness, and walk around the outer ring at the top! Needless to say, we did neither!

At the top lookout point, sections of the floor are GLASS!! Very thick glass, with lots of promises that the glass is as thick as the concrete and that there is no way you could fall through! However, still made me queasy walking across it! Talk about a birds-eye view - from the birds eye!

The tower provided amazing city scapes of Auckland. If you look closely, you can see a person suspended from a cable - this person had just jumped off the top!

And of the harbor.

Our final night in Auckland! Craig and Stephen hosted a farewell dinner for us - Tony, Deane, Marilyn and Dave came. We had a lovely time and Craig and Stephen fixed a wonderful dinner! It was sad to leave everyone! Craig and Stephen are wonderful hosts and made us feel very much at home. Now it's their turn to come and see us!

The next day we did a bit more touring around Auckland, then came back to the daunting task of getting all of our possessions back into our suitcases, and getting the suitcases closed! It wasn't easy! But, in the end, we managed. We were most fortunate to be able to get seat assignments immediately upon checking in, and not having to wait till the last minute. Another uneventful but incredibly long flight, and we were home!

(Note: If you see a picture you really like, you can double click on it to make it larger...)