Relax

Friday February 8th - Thursday February 14th

And so the final week in New Zealand is upon us. Can't believe that we are now just two weeks from returning to the UK. We're already starting to make contact with respective works sorting things out for when we return but we're not going to wish away the final days. With this having been our final week in NZ we decided that we would do what we had said we would do 23 weeks ago and find a nice place and hole up there for a few days to take it easy. The weather is still great here, the farmers aren't enjoying it as most of NZ is starting to go into drought but for us it's lovely.

With new car key at the ready we headed off from the Coromandel and started to make our way north of Auckland. This was another part of the North Island that we'd not explored before and we'd hoped to be able to make it to the Bay of Islands and spend some time there. When we looked at it though we would be spending a lot of time driving and not a lot of time enjoying the location so we spent a night in a small place called Waipu Cove and ended up staying for 3 nights as it was a very nice place with private beach access. We were able to enjoy strolls up and down the deserted beach, plenty of swims and sunbathes and even caught a beautiful sunrise too (something that we'd not really been able to do before). Only for a short 10-minute spell did the weather turn on us going from hot sun to driving rain to hailstones to muggy rain to sun.

After our relaxing time in Waipu Cove we had to head back to Auckland. We've been staying with a former colleague of mine, Neville and his wife Yvonne. They've made us very welcome and have shown us around a lot of Auckland that we've not seen before. We've been out an area known as Iron Sands because the sand is black. This is very close to the Manakau Heads where the Tasman Sea enters the estuaries and harbours around Auckland. We've also been able to get to Waiheke Island, one of the many islands close to Auckland in the Hauraki Gulf. We spent a very pleasant day having lunch in a winery and a quick trip to the beach. We've rounded our time off in Auckland and NZ with a very nice meal in the Sky Tower in the revolving restaurant.

We fly to Singapore on the 14th and then it's 3 nights there before a flight to Beijing. They're in the middle of one of their coldest winters ever so we'll have a chilly 3 nights there before boarding the Trans-Mongolian train on the 20th to take us through China, Mongolia (where they're just had an overnight temperature of -46°c recorded) and into Russia arriving in Moscow on the 25th. We've got 2 nights there before we return to the UK on the 27th. The likelihood is that the final blog entries won't be added until we get back so we'll make sure there are some good photos to add when we do update.

The week's 24/7s:

Friday: Sun, sea and sand. Feels like holidays

Saturday: New Zealand is like two different countries

Sunday: Hot sun to hail in thirty seconds

Monday: All you can eat? With my reputation?

Tuesday: No more car keys to worry about

Wednesday: It's all about the eating...and drinking!

Thursday: 6431km, two islands, that's New Zealand...done!