Day 1 - Auckland City

A good nights sleep was had by all......well maybe not Jane who gave up her bed for Helen & Stephen and is staying with a friend or Jeremy who gave up his room for us & had to sleep on a mattress in the study (thanks guys!!!) Lucky for them the Aussie rellies & their cling-ons only come over once every 5 years!

After a hurried breakfast we set off by 10am heading down to Half Moon Bay to catch the ferry into Auckland City. We joined the local senior citizens & their cut lunches and climbed on board. The trip was only 1/2 hour & the bay is beautiful, the houses that perch on the side of the cliffs are stunning, amazing architecture.

Along the way we passed the New Zealand naval base, two battle ships, not the biggest fleet on the ocean.

It had been decided last night that we would head to the Sky Tower first as both Zib & Harley had decided to jump. Harley had talked it up insisting that he would jump, (we were not so sure!). We approached the tower from the harbour & Harley's eyes were like saucers, it is a 192m or 630ft jump, they say it is like base-jumping with wires!

We watched a girl jump, it looked easy enough (says me who had no intention of doing it). After much discussion where we asked the crew whether we could get our money back if Harley decided once he was up there he couldn't do it (no, a transferable voucher), could one of us go up with him (no, jumpers only), Harley decided he couldn't do it. Zib was in, he was not backing out, money was paid & he was getting kitted out. Harley's eyes welled, he really wanted to do it.......

Time for inventive solutions........a proposal was put to Harley.......what about if you give it a go & go up with Zib, if you really can't do it I'll (Lisa) jump in your place! His smile was as wide as the Sydney Harbour Bridge, he was jumping, I had my toes, fingers & eyes crossed that he would jump!!!!! He was off, getting kitted out with Zib, he stuck to him like glue. Andrew & Jack took off to the Observation deck underneath the jump to take picture from that perspective & the rest of us head down to the landing pad soooooo many metres below.

Standing down the bottom looking up I really wondered if this was one of Andrew's & mine better parenting decisions? Before we knew it the crew told us Harley was jumping first, 40 seconds to launch, he was going, 20 seconds, still going........jumped! Or should I say dangled, he dangled up high for what seemed like  ages then began his fall to earth. He approached the large red target holding the back of his harness with a look of.......actually I don't know what! He said it was fantastic & asked could he go again!

Next came Zib, dangling over for eternity, posing for photos, not camera shy that boy! His fall to earth was in Superman style, aiming for the target which he hit with a rather large thud!

Mission accomplished, Sky Jump ticked off.

Next mission, shopping (well for Helen & Lisa). We walked the streets of Auckland looking for bargains, found a few, had to try really hard to resist the possum fur knitted jumpers, not!

Experienced a supermarket, got really excited thinking we would discover a new world, mmmmm,  reality was a Woolworths world disguised as 'Countdown', talk about a let down!!

Black Night Licorice not as nice as Darrell Lea (Helen beggs to differ), Smarties called Pebbles & L&P (a soft drink), not sure where to start with that!

It is getting late now, been at this for a while & need to go to bed.....

E haere rā