We arrived early afternoon on the Tuesday and spent the day settling in and catching up with old friends, so I've combined the two days into one...
So T.I.N.Z!
36 degrees South of the Equator ( I haven't flushed the toilet yet!) somewhere between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle.The Ozone down here has deteriorated, so even on a cloudy day ( of which this is) the sun is fierce.
We soon realised even our Tibetan gear was not sufficient to cope with the ever fluctuating weather so a shopping trip was needed at the local mall, we are staying in Torbay which is on an island just off of Auckland, accessed by a bridge or Ferry so we headed downtown.
Now they say N.Z. is expensive and at US $170.00 for a pair of Levis - I can agree, I declined the purchase however Ais did much better with jeans and two sweaters for only $70.
We had dined out Italian last night after a chilled afternoon acclimatising, today we brunched at a seaside cafe as we watched the rain come down hard, it rained so long we had to stay for gelato :)
It would be sacrilege to be in NZ and not eat lamb so we bought all the ingredients for a good roast as well as a good bottle of local vino and had a lamb foursome care of Gina and Clint.
I will run tomorrow, there is beautiful bay at the bottom of the street with a long flat beach about a mile long, I figure if I don enough clothes I'll make it.
We have for the first time I can remember, a heater in my room, it does drop into the single digits at night!
