The Land of the Long White Cloud was more like the Land of the Long Grey Cloud and the great NZ summer was a bit of a wash-out. The result was less walking and fishing than we would have liked but still a wonderful time catching up with Daniel and lots of friends.

Daniel met us at the airport and took us to Peter’s house at One Tree Point where he stayed with us for a few days including Xmas – thank you Megan for welcoming us into a McRae family Xmas.

We headed to Auckland for New Year’s Eve staying with Tony and Jean. For New Year’s Eve we also teamed up with Nikki and Paul and toured Auckland’s new waterfront as well as the Art Gallery and Albert Park before heading back to Tony and Jean’s to see in the new year.

Next stop was Whangamata where we stayed with Barry and Ngaire but travelled to Hahei and Cathedral Cove to meet up with Daniel again and also to Oamaru Bay, north of Coromandel, to meet Doug.

It had been many years since we last stopped in the Karangahake Gorge. There are now numerous walkways through the old gold mine workings in lush New Zealand bush.

A break in the weather lasted long enough for a day out with Peter Courtney.

This meant the now traditional champagne lunch, a swim for pipis and a very laid back afternoons fishing.

The following day Peter took us back to Tony and Jeans where we had two more nights before the long flight back to Abu Dhabi.

We left at lunch time on Friday and after crossing several time zones arrived just after midnight on the same day. Luggage arrived on Monday!