New Zealand

 We arrived in Auckland on Thursday after 36 hours in planes and airports.  We just crashed there, slept and headed north to the Bay of Islands the next morning.  Driving on the left side is challenging but even more so for my dear husband as he continually turns on the windshield wipers which are also reversed when he is trying to signal a turn.  The roads are twisty and turny but we survived the first trip and Warren is getting less nervous.  This is the view from our motel called Cook's Lookout high on a hill overlooking the bay -- just gorgeous and a lovely room as well.  They can be found at Cooks Lookout website and it is run by the nicest couple -- some x-pats from Liverpool.  It is away from the hub bub of Paihai but close and just beautiful.

We drove over to Haruru Falls a short distance away for a short walk.

This is a Tui or also called The Parson Bird because of the white tuft under its chin.  We have seen quite a few of these and they have quite a song.

You can see the beautiful sunrise we had this morning -- this is the view from the motel.

Internet is sparse and expensive so there will probably not be a lot of blogs plus I am typing from this tiny keyboard and Google made it super difficult to get even into my blog.