Back in Freo we decided to go to the prison which closed, after a riot, in 1991. It was an interesting hour or so, and we even got to see the gallows complete with rope still swinging. Afterwards we went for a quick run around the market where I had my tarot read. Really interesting stuff - I shose all 4 aces (you choose 10 cards out of 78) which she said was very strong. She described me as strong minded, indecisive and sexy as hell (I made one of those up...) and seemed surprisingly accurate. Apparently I will come into some money in May...lottery tickets WILL be bought...

In the evening (Friday) we decided to go out for a meal as Saturday was to be an overnight flight. We found a great little Italian - Sandrino (not a helpful dwarf called Marco) - and had a wonderful meal - all the better as we hadn't eaten outside a campervan for weeks!!

So, it's goodbye to Aus - we've had some real highlights; the diving, Ayers Rock, Sydney, The Whitsundays, couple of nights out in Melbourne, Darwin and the crew there, Fraser Island et al, and only one real lowlight. All in all it's been fantastic and we will be back one day to see the bits we haven't this time round, and to revisit some of our fave places.

We're now in Auckland - it seems like a really nice, open-spaced, interesting city. We arrived at 5pm yesterday and eventually picked up our van around 6pm leaving the depot at 7. It took us 90 minutes (and over 50 kms) to find our campsite. Tired, hungry and p***ed off we eventually rolled up just before 9. Fortunately there was a Pizza Hut next door which we made use of...with it being Sunday all the shops were shut. The day in transit was awful - we got really bad legroom seats (Jen had some sort of post where her feet should have gone) and couldn't sleep on the overnighter and then tried to grab an hour or so in the terminal before boarding the midday(ish) flight to Auckland. That one was a little better but we could have done without the hordes that descended on the departure lounge for the 2 earlier flights to Japan...

So, a couple of days in Auckland ahead - Rangitoto Island is on the agenda tomorrow as well as the Skytower and a couple of other things. From here we're heading north to do some diving at the world renowned Poor Knights Islands (in Jacques Cousteau's top ten world dive sites) and we'll also hopefully get to dive the wreck of the Rainbow Warrior. That should mean our anniversary should be spent in some thermal spa or other at Rotorua - at least that's the plan fo now...