Whangaparoa

So, settling in to NZ life. We're staying with SJ's parents in a place called Whangaparoa. Its on the North Island of NZ, about 50 km's north of Auckland. The actual suburb is called Army Bay. We've spent that last few days chilling out, doing family stuff...SJ's sister lives 2 doors away so we've also been spending a fair amount of time round there. We've been to the local shopping centre to get some clothes (our cases were so heavy with Xmas presents we had to forgo a fair amount of "normal" packing). Everything is really cheap here, you can pick up some real bargains, particularly on the "surfwear" type stuff.

I also went on a little walk around Shakespear National Park. This is literally two minutes from Army Bay and is a protected Nature Reserve. You can get a really good viewpoint from the top...

Muriwai was another stop on our travels. This is on the Western side of the North Island and houses a gannet colony and another Nature reserve. That's one thing about NZ, they're very particular about protection of their island...something to be applauded I think...