We booked into the Bayswater Marina for a week, giving us time to prepare Time2 for her long journey to Florida. (more about that later) Bayswater is on a peninsula in the Waitemata harbour, opposite the city. Auckland has two harbours, the other being the Manukau, which have strangely never been joined.  Looking on my chart I estimate that a canal about 3 miles long, with some dredging could have joined these two harbours, making a cut right through the north island.  But with those areas heavily built up, it is now too late.  The city has a great ferry service which makes transport a lot easier than dealing with extreme road congestion.

 

We took a cycle around to the next town Devonport, which has a lot more hills than we anticipated, but was good to get some exercise. Its a very pretty town, with some gorgeous homes.

 

   

 

 

 

It was New Years eve, and we must have one of the best views in Auckland. We enjoyed a quiet evening on the back deck and watched the amazing fireworks shot off the Skytower

 

      

 

In between a lot of cleaning up and packing away, we also had a great time meeting old and new friends.  Auckland is FULL of ex South Africans.

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

We also had a great day out to Matakana, with Andrew & Kerri, where we visited Morris & James who make some amazing huge handmade pots. It was very interesting to go through the whole process.