Well we are on our adventure!! We took off Saturday afternoon and headed to SFO before getting on our Air New Zealand Flight to Auckland. Greg had been in charge of purchasing us some snacks and we ended up with an entire carry on bag filled with treats (yes we know there are snacks in New Zealand, but you can never be too prepared.

The flight had video on Demand so we were all very pleased – I watched 3 chick movies (Rumor Has It, Prime and The Weatherman), and mark watched 3 Mark movies (Harry Potter, Serenity and Aeon Flux). 🙂 I was pleased when Greg ordered wine with dinner (its true he does drink in other countries). The flight was 14 hours but after many movies, food and games of Sudoku we arrived. I like to follow the law so I made the boys declare all of our goods (food and hiking boots) even after I got the roll of the eyes from Greg. We opened our Snack-case and disposed of the illegal products. Here are greg and mark at the drop point…

Greg’s bad luggage Karma showed its ugly face and sadly none of our bags showed up. We headed to our hotel to check in, but because it was 7:00 am they didn’t have any rooms. We went in search of some clothes to hold us over until our luggage arrived. We checked in, took a shower using all of the hotel’s toiletries – and headed off to catch the ferry to Devonport. We walked up Mount Victoria to get great views of the Auckland bays and downtown. Here we are in our new clothes – yes I love trees!!

We headed back on the ferry to Auckland to meet Duncan and Robin at the Loaded Hog for drinks and dinner. They are both working in Auckland and living the life aboard Whisper. We had a great dinner at Wagamam (japanese noodles) and headed back to the hotel to sleep off our Jet Lag (which hasn’t been that bad)

The next morning we headed across to the Bayswater Marina to meet Robin and Duncan and Whisper. The weather was a mix of sunny blue skies and then mini-squalls (WHITE SQUALL!) We decided to be true Kiwi’s and brave the elements. Once out in channel I was able to navigate Whisper and avoid massive freighter ships and ferry’s – it was pretty stressful. At the first sign of tipping, I quickly handed back the wheel.

We headed into Islington Bay where we dropped anchor and had a lovely lunch with tunes, beers and fabulous sun! Greg and Mark got a little out of control at the front while trying to hoist the sail (at least I wanted them to envision that as they posed for the shot. Duncan and Robin are awesome sailors – they took some time to get us aquainted with the general sailing terms and even let us be ship mates!

We headed back into the marina (perfect docking Robin!!) to try a new Kiwi drink called a “Bee Sting” – a mix of Manuka Honey Vodka and Ginger Beer with a splash of lime. It was YUMMY! We ordered in “Hell’s Pizza” which was delicious and tasted many NZ wines. Yes more drinking by Greg!

We got up early to fly to Wellington where Michael greeted us at the airport. We snagged our car and drove to Martinborough to Roland (Michael Sladden Look-a-like) and Lyles Vineyard (Julie this is your kind of place). We had a lovely lunch on the veranda and headed out to do some wine tasting at the local winery that Roland and Lyle supply grapes to Ata Rangi. YUMMY. Lyle also mentioned a famous chocolate shop in Greytown and of course greg was ready to go. Honestly this is truly the most unique and tasty chocolate ever – Greg Stocked up, but today we are heading back for more.

We had a lovely dinner in town and today we are heading back Wellington for a cocktail party with many family friends. We are having an amazing time and wishing we could permanently be on vacation! We will blog more when we get to Nelson.

Cheers from Kiwi Land!