Friday again and we have had a very hot and humid week..finally! Its been hot during day and the night and we have had to buy a mosquito repellent device for the flat...steve and I are covered in bites and camomile lotion to ease the itchiness - nice.

We have been looking at flats but apparently there is a rental crisis in Auckland at the moment, so we have timed it perfectly! Too many tenants and not enough properties - great news. Prices seem to be high here in Auckland and flats have a very quick turnover - just like in London. Most seem to be unfurnished so we will have to buy or rent everything from scratch - flats dont even come with fridges! Our current flat is on the market as an "Executive pad"! But there dont seem to be any takers at the mo as we havent had any prospective tenants looking around. Thank god thats not our problem.

Been at the beach and just chilling this week, enjoying the last few days before Steve has to go back to work. We have been out for a lovely Indian meal which made us very homesick and we both thought back to our last meal in London in Nanglos - how we miss Balham!

This is steves school, its a huge building with about 2000 students. Its an amzing school for sport and acdemic life. Students have to live in the correct "zone" in order to go there - so flats/houses in that zone are quite expensive. The boys where shorts throughout their whole shool life, even in the sixth form - its quite weird to see. ( Not that Im looking at boys in shorts or anything)


We have done a few outings recently. We met up with steves workmate and his partner and we visited Waiheke island. Its about a 40 min journey by ferry and has great beaches - a real island feel to it. Some people commute to work from waiheke into the centre - its a very posh place to live and a bit exclusive. We did our first "tramp" which means long walk through the forest.. it was pretty hard work in my flip flops but I managed - I am very unfit in any case.

Here is picture of us at the summit of our walk.


This is view from the bottom shwoing where we walked to



Last friday we went to annual "Big Day Out" at Mount Smart Stadium in Auckland. It was a day of bands and DJs from New Zealand and mainly BG and America. We saw the Killers, Kasabian, The Streets, Lili Allen ( unfortunately), My Chemical Romance - who I'd never heard of but are huge in NZ. Scribe - NZ rapper/hip hop artist. Oh - Muse and Jet and someone ele but I cant remember now...anyhoo- The Killers were the best by far. We had a lovely day as the weather was great and we managed to fight through the queues and purchase a few bevvies. we actually had ot get "age verified" to be able to purchase drinks at the event and only a few places were "liquor" areas so we were actually without alcohol for much of the day depending on which band we wanted to see. Steve got his driving licence out bless him, to get verified - he actually thinks coz he acts 17 he still looks it!!!

It was a strange event - not quite a festival but bigger than just seeing one artist play. We were such tourists we probably mised all the good bits and hope that if we go again next year we are a bit more clued up and go with some friends!

Some piccies









Anyhoo - all for now. I must get back to looking for a flat. Have just booked one viewing for tomorrow - so fingers crossed.