On Thursday morning, after not a tremendous amount of sleep, Haig and I were up early and greeted with an impressive breakfast by Mrs Haiden, and then off with Craig on our sightseeing road trip around Auckland, and the neighbouring areas. The Haiden's house was in East Tamaki, so from there is was through Howick, towards Macleans Park, which overlooked their old school, Macleans College, where both Craig and Keith went to school. After a brief walk stop and view from Macleans Park, it was up through Bucklands Beach and to the most northern tip where we landed up at Musick Point, the headland of the peninsula, which was named after Ed Musick, a famous aviator who visited NZ in the 1930s. Nothing to do with 'music' as I first thought. Musick Point is also the site of the Musick Memorial Radio Station, an impressive building in the Modern style, which was opened in 1942 to communicate with ships and aircraft. The station was also the headquarters of the main maritime coast station. A small walk down some rugged stairs took us to the beach down below, where a few fishermen were scattered about, going about their daily fishing.

After sometime at Musick Point, we headed back into the city centre, towards the ferry port. We decided to hop on board the ferry across to Devonport for a few hours around there, but had some time to kill before the next departure, so popped into the fanzone on Queens Wharf for a quick walk around. The ferry across didn't take all that long, but provided some amazing views of the Auckland skyline the further away we got.

Once we got to Devonport, we took a walk along the coastal path towards North Head, a volcanic cone forming a headland within North Shore City. It is a public reserve known for its sweeping views over the harbour and the Hauraki Gulf. During the last century it was mainly used by the military for coastal defense installation, which left a network of accessible old bunkers and tunnels as its legacy, forming part of the attraction. We had a good few hours there, walking around the tunnels, the canons and the old military equipment. All with amazing views back over towards Auckland city.

En route back to the ferry terminal, we stopped off at the local fish 'n chip shop for lunch, then boarded the ferry back to Auckland harbour. Craig had planned to quickly meet up with Merissa, so we got meet her, even though it was very brief. Driving through town, we stopped off at an ice-cream shop for some gelato, known for their alternative flavours - and I tried a chocolate and blue cheese flavour, which was actually pretty good. After the gelato, it was back to the Haidens who had planned an awesome bbq for us for dinner last night. Donna popped around as well, which was cool.

After dinner, the four of us (Craig, Donna, Haig and myself) decided to head down to their local pub, the Cock & Bull - a traditional English pub. They have their regular band playing, but unfortunately it was unbelievably quiet, just no one there, except a few of their fans, who were clearly close family and friends. After a pint or two each, we decided to call it a night, and headed back to the Haidens.

Yesterday morning was another early start once Craig came round, and after trying to decide on a breakfast, we settled on a fry up :) Can't beat a decent fry up for breakfast. We were quite slow in getting going this morning, but didn't have a whole lot planned for the day, so wasn't really a problem. Once we got on our way, we headed for Craig's house, which I had yet to see. They are in the stages of renovating their place, so the place was in quite a state, which was clear by we weren't staying there for the few days, but rather with the Haidens.

Sometime later after the grand tour of Craig (and Merissa's) place, we made our way into town, and stopped off to do some souvenir shopping, which I had yet to do, so was good to tick that off the list. After a bit of successful souvenir shopping, our next destination was the North Shore for the SA vs Samoa game, the last of our group games. Should be good...