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We had breakfast and headed down to meet Tom, hoping we would recognize him as we had not picked an exact place to meet or anything and could not reach him except by e-mail as our phone did not want to work in NZ. As we got out of the ship's security area, he pulled up in a new Ford Ranger truck and we all knew each other immediately. We spent the day sightseeing around Auckland, visiting with some of his friends from Turkey who own cafes and drinking a lot of coffee. We went up into the nearby hills and had lunch at the Puhoi Pub (very good fish and chips with a local fish, tarakhini). We finished the day with more coffee at Ali's cafe and then headed back to the ship with plans to meet at 6:30am the next day and spend a long day driving in the Northland. Tom had thought to take us to Rotorua, but we told him we had just been there, so we switched gears and settled on the Twin Coasts of Discovery or heading northward and westward to the West Coast and into the Kauri forest. We had a quick meal in the Grand Dining Room (Daryl was beginning to flag on the eating front) and headed to bed.

We expected to fight the crowds as we got off the ship the next morning (Tuesday) as it was the transition day between the two cruises, but all the bags were downstairs and most people were still having breakfast before disembarking. We already had new ID cards for the second cruise so could come and go as we pleased until departure from Auckland on Wednesday night.

We covered a lot of ground Tuesday, looping around the top of the island, but not quite as far as Bay of Islands as that was the ship's next stop. Tom has a house near Russell in Bay of Islands and has invited us to visit there on a future trip. We stopped for breakfast in one small town at about 8am and for coffee in Dargaville at the blah blah blah cafe about 10:30am. We headed into the Kauri forest in search of Tane Mahuta, the big Kauri tree. Kauris are similar in size and age to Redwoods or Sequoias. They are a softwood and their trunks are extremely straight so the early Europeans cut down many of the forests to mill planks for their ships. The Maori consider them sacred to some extent. At one point, we headed up a gravel/dirt road for miles to a viewpoint, a disused fire watch station, where we could see forests for miles. Finally, we got to the Big Kauri and walked through the rainforest to see it. You can get some idea of its size from the photos with one or another of us posed in front of the tree. We then headed down and out of the forest to curve along the beach and have some Tarakhini sandwiches on the waterfront and the Opini Resort (sounds better than it is, but the view is wonderful.) The community had a pet dolphin in their bay and somebody killed it, which was a national loss and written up in all the NZ papers. There is a monument.

After lunch we started wending our way back to the ship. We made a stop in Kawakawa to see the fantastical public toilets constructed by a Scandinavian man. Kawakawa also has a train track running right down the middle of the main street. As we neared Auckland, the traffic began to build. Tom, who retired from Air New Zealand 8 years ago, is not thrilled to hit rush hour traffic so we stopped at Ali's place for coffee and finally headed back to the ship to get there about 6:30pm. We told him that we had some stuff to do on our final day in Auckland so said our farewells. He is thinking about buying another Gold Wing in the US so we may see him again sooner rather than later. He is working on a renovation on the Russell house, finishing a property sale in Auckland and doing some remodeling work for his friends. Also, he may have complications with his brother's estate in Australia. But we are sure we have not seen the last of each other.

Our butler, Ivo, had got us a reservation at Toscana for dinner so we went up for Maria's grand unveiling as maitre d', then back for a good night's sleep after a long day.