With Steve & Margaret

Thursday, 22nd February continued
Such an easy and quick flight to Auckland where a taxi takes us to Steve and Margaret's house in Milford, very close to the sea. Margaret is a bit of a "dog whisperer" and currently has 2 gorgeous dogs staying - Louis and Jake. With Steve back from work, we meet up with Billy and Lindsay and have supper at Tock Tock, a fusion restaurant in Takapuna. It was a busy place and the food was amazing.

Friday, 23rd February
With Margaret we take the dogs to the beach and are joined by Hunter, the neighbour's dog. A gorgeous morning and the beach is busy with dog walkers as dogs are not allowed on the beach after 10.30. Some lovely houses adjoin the beach but these can be vulnerable to high waves.
Steve and Jim go off to golf at Northshore whilst Margaret and I take the dogs to a dog friendly garden centre where we have lunch. The boys are so well behaved!
The neighbours are coming to supper so Steve & Jim buy meat on their way home. However, there is trauma - Coco, the old labrador belonging to the neighbours has gone missing. Chris & Mike can't remember when they last saw her. We go out - marina, beach, park etc hunting Coco, but no luck. The vet, pound, police etc have all been contacted. No Coco. When Chris & Mike come round they have good news - Coco is in a pound 30 minutes away having been picked up just yards from her house at midnight. She must have slipped out of the garage. So the meal was very jolly but Coco, the convicted felon with a huge price on her head, cannot be released until tomorrow morning.

Saturday, 24th February
We meet Emma Calnan and her partner John (Jose's special friend!) for breakfast in Ponsonby. They have an Airb&b here in Auckland and have lots to chat about. John is nearly 60 but is playing football this afternoon. We have a wander around Ponsonby looking at the quirky shops and listening to the busker.
We went out for a fish supper to a very popular restaurant called Regatta - a waterfront position in Takapuna. Very slow service but worth waiting for.

Sunday 25th February
We pack up yet again, go out for breakfast with Steve and Margaret, and then go to Auckland airport with Steve the taxi driver (another Steve) to collect the car we have hired for 24 hours. What a mess up!! Steve coudn't read his phone sat nav properly - Jim is convinced he was holding it upside down - and we spent about 30 minutes going round in circles. We eventually find Aerocars and get the keys to a nice new car. Alas, our sat nav wouldn't work

- fuses - and once the fuses had been changed the car wouldn't start. So we had to unpack the car and change to another one which was much older and with tyres that were nearly bald. "Don't worry, we will be changing them next week" we were told!
We drive south towards Hamilton, stopping at our motel in Papakura on the way to offload the baggage. Cute little place, big room and fresh muffins for us and the owner is called Steve - the favourite name here. We head off to Hamilton to the England v New Zealand ODI and park really close, which was great. Our seats are in the shade - for a while - and it is a very small ground but lots of enthusiastic supporters. The match was quite dull for much of it, but there was a very exciting finish with New Zealand hitting a 6 to beat us with only 2 balls to go. We have a comfortable night back at the motel in Papakura - our 12th different bed during our holiday (at least).

Monday, 26th February
A very good night's sleep and we are ready to leave, but we first go for a

traditional Kiwi breakfast in Papakura. We found a small wholemeal cafe called Canopius where everything was homemade and looked delicious. Here in New Zealand you get served the best poached eggs in the world! Why aren't our cafes in Britain like this. Maybe we should open one in Chichester when we get back!