Les Poissons de Mer du Sud

After JZ's little expedition to Rotorura, we welcomed him back into the fold by making him feel at home with more London visitors - this time in the form of Manni and Lisa! So to give them a warm welcome (well a brief one really as they were only with us for a long lunch before catching a plane!) we thought we would introduce them to a kiwi delicacy in the form of feijoa. For those of you who have never heard of them, feijoas are a type of fruit, also know as the pineapple guava. You get them in parts of South America too and they are eaten like a kiwi fruit and used a lot in juices etc. The opinion of those who tried them was that they were nice but perhaps tasted ''slightly of soap'' as they have a perfumed aroma!!!

JZ getting excitable!

Manni not really sure if he likes Feijoa...

Still, it was nice for Park View group to be represented again on this side of the world (plus JZ!!) and it was great to catch up, albeit very briefly...

Sunday afternoon saw us back at the West Auckland beaches - these are the black sand ones - so that John could do some fishing. I felt that this was actually a bit of an extreme sport as you obviously have to stand quite close to the edge of the rocks and the waves can be quite wild there - check out how wet the rocks look!

Why would you do that??

Standing way too close to the edge for my liking!

However Josh and the boys decided to be intrepid and threw out a few lures to see if anything would bite...

Josh and his rod...

Not quite sure of JZ's technique...

Sadly John's hopes of catching something were dashed when it was revealed to him that the tug on his line was actually being caused by the fact that it had got stuck between the rocks, so he was forced to re-bait his hook.... this was carried out with much hilarity and exclamation as apparently fish bait does not smell particularly nice!!!

New bait!

Yes, it really does smell!

Why help when you can look on and laugh??!!

Having failed to catch any real fish the day before, on Monday we went with JZ to Kelly Tarltons, an Auckland landmark that was one of the first aquarium's to use curved tunnels rather than flat panels and because of the way that they are shaped, everything actually appears one third smaller than it is! Its particularly well known for its penguins and stingrays...

Thats one bus you don't want to be hit by...

The closest I've been to driving over here!

Happy feet anyone??

Protecting their young

John auditioning for Jaws - the remake

We got there in time for the stingray feeding, which was really impressive as they truly are massive and they still have their barbs in place. Apparently it is extremely rare to be killed by a stingray though - only about 19 people ever have been, so Steve Irwin really just was unfortunate. At one point I thought they were going to knock over the girl giving the demo though as they come right up out of the water!

I was scared even if she wasn't!!

MZ and JZ with the Auckland skyline in the back

John enjoyed the experience so much that he decided to use the next day whilst we were at work to do his introductory PADI dive there and so was able to swim with them up close and personal! In the evening JZ very kindly took us out to dinner at this cool bar called the Northern Steamship, right on the harbour. It is characterised by its upside down hanging lights and has been converted from the old offices of the Northern Steamship company into a pub so it is actually quite old and has a lot of character by New Zealand standards!

One picture, many frames...

Shame we couldn't reach them, I need a lamp for my room!

Josh, Colin and John

So it was a sad farewell to John but we were safe in the knowledge that we'll see him again in a couple of months when we head back to the UK for Carey and James' wedding.... but next on our list is the big south island tramp.....eek!!