Ships that pass in the night

Meeting up with Marina, Mark, Caroline and John
Originally uploaded by mark&june

Hello from Auckland!

Those of you from NU/L&E may remember Marina James, who used to work (and ski!) with us. She and her husband Mark, and his brother John and (very soon to be) wife Caroline arrived in NZ yesterday to celebrate John's birthday, watch the cricket, and attend John and Caroline's wedding in Wellington!

Luckily we had a couple of hours overlap with them in Auckland, and we met up for some drinks underneath the Sky Tower. It was great to see them and they did very well to keep their eyes open considering they were severely jet-lagged! Actually Marina was her usual bubbly self, but John and Mark were clearly struggling!

We had a good last couple of days up north. The sun continued to shine and our visit to Waitingi was really interesting. Although there continue to be issues to this day with how the Treaty has been interpreted (especially around land rights), it seems to have been written with the right intentions, and its aim of "one land, one people" was a noble one.

Quick update re the backpacker room we had in the Bay of Islands - unfortunately we didn't have it to ourselves, as three Brazilian girls turned up to share with us at 10.30pm. As you can imagine I was most put out!

We've got a few days in Auckland before we head off to South America on Thursday. We'd better head out now and explore the big city. Bye for now!


PS We've uploaded the photos for the last few days, starting here.