City of Sails

After our time in Tahiti, we flew to Auckland, New Zealand. While flying south we crossed the International Date line and Peter suddenly turned 16. Auckland is known as the city of sails! There are more sail boats here per capta than most any other place. The America's Cup Yachting race was held here in 2000 & 2002, and we were able to visit the Viaduct Harbour where much of the action took place (see photo below). We stayed in a lovely hotel downtown. Warren has a couple of cousins that live in Auckland and they had us all over for a lovely dinner. We were finally in New Zealand and looking forward to heading further south. There is still trouble with volcanic ash from the Chilean eruption and so our pilot had to drop down and fly at just 18,000 ft. which gave us an amazing view of the Southern Alps. It was a lovely day and Anna-Kate and I had window seats - enjoying our view of the South Island. Warrens family were waiting for us in the airport and welcomed Warren home! Warren's sister, Carla, and her two daughters also came to welcome us.