February 2016 Round the World in 27 Days – Chapter 1.
We left the UK full of trepidation – to travel around the World in 27 days and visit the people and places planned seemed ambitious if not daunting. Our first port of call was San Francisco and then a rental car to travel to Jo’s home in San Jose arriving quite late at night. We saw Jo and the children off to school and the met our friends Sharon and Cliff for coffee and then a delightful lunch. 
Friday evening and Saturday were spent ‘chilling out’ with Jo and the children.
Oliver and Sienna demonstrated their prowess on their skateboards .
Alexander seemed content to lie on his bed and play on his iphone!
Leaving San Jose on Sunday afternoon we caught an overnight flight to Auckland. However, as we crossed the International Date Line we lost Monday and arrived on Tuesday morning. We picked up a rental car and drove to Lucy and James’s apartment block before collecting the keys to our rented apartment two minutes walk away within the complex but in another block (magic arrangement). We enjoyed a leisurely day with Lucy acting as guide as we explored the local area including the harbour and many waterfront restaurants. James joined us after work for dinner. The night time view of the Auckland tower from their apartment was quite special.
Over the next couple of days Lucy showed us Devonport (reached by ferry), the beach at PIha (famous to surfers) and the nearby Kitekite falls only visible after a twenty minute walk through the forest.
We also went to the Auckland Botanical Gardens – they were quite away out of the city but well worth the visit. There were many sculptures in the gardens including the one shown in the photo which looks like a giant flower but is in fact a collection of upturned watering cans arranged around a central core!
The four of us travelled to Lake Taupo for the weekend. En-route we visited Rotorua and noticed the modes of transport available for the tourist!
Then we visited the Hells Gate Thermal Reserve (so named by George Bernard Shaw following a visit) with its boiling hot pools in excess of 100 degrees Celsius; steaming vents from which volcanic gas escapes, hot water lakes, sulphur crystals and deposits; It was smelly but awesome!
Our final visit of the day was to the Huka Falls where the Waikato River, which is normally 100m wide, is squeezed through a 20 metre wide gorge and over a 20m drop. It is said that 220,000 litres of water a second gush through the gorge – it certainly was a special sight. Annie and Gerry had visited before in 2005 but were still entranced by the power of the water.
