After a week on the beautiful South Island and a forgettable flight through ex tropical cyclone we were finally in Auckland, gateway to the Bay of Islands, Waheike island and other stuff, but we were in Auckland.  Having never been so happy to be on “solid” ground (as solid as the ground can get in NZ), there was nothing Auckland could do to make us not love it there, but it tried.

We stayed out of the CBD, having not realised until told the flat taxi rate from the airport only counted to the CBD and not to an inner city suburb, somewhat closer to the airport (had it not been so wet and James not been so shaky it would have been cheaper to catch a fixed rate cab to the CBD and another one back to our place), in a great area called Ponsonby.  This was the place to be in the rain, full of awesome restaurants and bars, it was the perfect location for us to put on some extra kilos after all the shredding we’d done ex-streaming down South.

There was one break in the weather, however, and we made the most of it, taking the ferry away from Auckland to the stunning island of Waheike.  We were hoping for a day of getting back to nature, to really appreciate more of the flora of this spectacular country so set off tramping over the hills it a direction James chose completely at random.  You really wouldn’t believe the surprise on our faces when, not 10 minutes later, we stumbled across a cellar door with views back towards the city!!  And what’s more the one up the road happened to have a reservation under our name not 40 minutes later!  (NB: Grapes count as flora.)  What’s even better is there was a bus that could pick you up from one winery and drop you at the door to another, what??  Having worn heels and a dress to go tramping, Lea decided this was the better option, and James reluctantly tagged along.

Our final night in NZ was all set to be huge as we’d cleverly booked tickets to see the Foo Fighters and Weezer months ago!  However, our small break in the weather didn’t last long and it bucketed down all day leading up to what we discovered was an entirely outdoor concert.  Neither of us wanting to be the first to call it quits and thereby being the one blamed for missing the concert if the sun came out, we just drank at bars on the docks and awkwardly stared at each other in a strange game of chucken, constantly chicking both the weather and how much the tuckets had cost us.  (I’ve got another confession to make…after a guy in a sailor’s hat near the buses to the show spewed near my feet in the rain on my last day of holiday…there was no way I was going to go sit in the rain for 8 hours before getting on an early flight with a temporary carrier. But there was no way I was going to give in first!!)

Finally, after realising, no amount of footos would help improve the weather, we made the call and headed back to Ponsonby to drink with our new besties from Madrid.  This coincided with the moment the rain stopped.  Stressing over our wines at a cool little music bar and feeling totally fooked over, we trawled the webs and managed to find people to offloading tickets up to $400 for free, news that they’d run out of ponchos for sale and photos of hard-core fans lining up one by one at security (flat out confiscating umbrellas) in the rain for what must have felt like for everlong!  How happy these photos made provided a shocking insight into our humanity.  I guess it really gave us foo for thought.  We ended up having a great night, content in our decision and happy we didn’t have to sit through the irony of Weezer opening their set with “Island in the Sun”.