Starting another adventure today, a road trip around the North Island of New Zealand.

Have landed in Auckland after a two and a half hour flight from Brisbane. Aboard Qantas QF 119, we managed to escape Brisbane just on an hour late, we had waited for another delayed International flight. Curious you know, we got to the airport a bit before 6am for a flight due to go at 8.30am, got away at 9.35. So we were there for three and half hours. It then took only two hours forty minutes to fly to Auckland! Could be a conspiracy to spend money on a brekkie and coffees before you go!

Why do you have to get there so early these days? You check in the day before from home, at the airport you get your baggage tags and load the bags yourself etc etc. ‘Good grief’ as Charlie Brown said! Anyway it was a pleasant flight, a little bumpy in parts.

Enjoyed the onboard breakfast ….

Hmm, a kale frittata, some chicken sausages and hash browns (a little worse for wear). It was hot and quite tasty! Some banana bread to follow on.

Caught the Sky Drive into town to our hotel at The Grand by SkyCity near the Casino. Some nice harbour and Sky Tower views from our room.

Later in the evening we had dinner at the Empire Hotel, old style pub food.

Stumbled into a trivia night! Came last, quite a few NZ specific questions and also ones where we had no clue. No excuses though others were too good!

Not sure where we are off to in the morning, weather is a little problematic.