Auckland, 20th December

That was one mammoth journey! At one point I really did think that I would be on a plane or in and airport for the rest of time...On the plus side, we didn't actually have to do the obligatory sprint from one side to the other in order not to miss our flight.
It was cold, sunny and beautiful leaving Leeds Bradford, and the view of the Wash from the air was amazing.
Schipol: the fish nibbling people's feet and the water massage table were fun to watch. And the mini-museum was fascinating too - the artworks on loan from the Rijksmuseum gave a fascinating snapshot of Dutch life.
Hong Kong: beautiful airport, and spectacular scenery round it. Flights: lengthy! Two books and three films (finally got to see Iron Man 3 and Despicable Me 2; Rob actually agreed to watch an animation, as he was so brain-dead it was all he could cope with.

The Rendezvous Hotel in Auckland is lovely. It has horizontal beds with clean sheets, and no background drone! I managed two sips of my cup of tea before crashing out for five blissful hours. Then we went out for an evening walk, and slept again. Definitely did justice to the breakfast bar today - and the three pots of tea! Amazingly enough, not feeling jet-lagged at all: I'll see how easy it is to get to sleep tonight...
Today's photographs:I'll add captions tomorrow as I'm about to fall asleep now!

We went down to the marina and admired all the boats - some of which were huge!

But this one was my favourite! The whole area round the old docks is being redeveloped, and was all lively and changing.

Bird pictures, especially for Fiona so that she knows I saw them! This is a Pied Shag.

This is a Pukeko.

This is a Tui, but I can't count it as I saw it in an aviary at Auckland Zoo. But the other two count! As do the Welcome Swallows, but I couldn't photograph those: they were far too quick. I need a bird that sits still for a long time!