We’re back in Auckland today after several incredible days of travel.  You know how normally when you go on a touring vacation, you can list a bunch of things that were fun and a bunch of things that were OK, and a couple things that were stupid and which you would not recommend that anyone do?  We have yet to come across anything in category 2 or 3.  It helps that New Zealand is perfectly set up for tourists, with specialized government-run "I-Sites" in every town to with recommendations about travel, sights, eating, and hotels.  As you know, we saw Auckland and Rotorua.  We’ve also toured a volcano in Whakatane, visited Lake Taupo, seen waterfalls galore, hiked around the beach at Mount Maunganui, hiked through Karangahake Gorge, and on and on.  Nothing has been disappointing.  To think that we spent 10 days here and only saw about 2/3 of the North Island, without coming even close to running out of things to do and skipping lots on our way.

When we return to KL we will have to post some of our 200 pictures.  When we do so we’ll give you all more of a run-down of what we did.