After I managed to rouse Keiron from his slumber we had breakfast at Starbucks.

We took the bus to Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Encounter and Underwater world and asked a couple to take a picture of us with the Auckland skyline behind us (the hypodermic needle of the Sky Tower the most recognisable feature, if not the most pretty).

The Arctic explorer is a ride in a 'Snowcat' (though not a real one) and takes you past penguins being their own funny selves. You can walk under the aquarium, seeing short tailed stingrays, sharks and loads of other fish swim right over your head. They had a tank with tiny seahorses, ugly fish, pretty fish, poisonous fish etc. There was even a big seaturtle.

We went back in the bus (a sign saying 'the bus kneels on request') and had lunch at Gloria Jean's cafe and afterwards took the bus to Mount Eden, an extinct volcano of which there are loads around Auckland, where you have great views over the bays and the city.

I'm still trying to catch up at website duties and Keiron beat my ass at pool - again. We had dinner at That's Asian (Thai and Malaysian cuisine), a foodcourt chain but actually very good, not to mention good value.

In the evening we went to see 'House of Flying Daggers', a film by Zhang Zimou (the guy from 'Hero'). The photography was amazing, but the story was a bit slap-dash. Andy Lau was superb as usual...

We're picking up the car tomorrow and leaving Auckland, which is too bad in a way because it's a great city. It's so clean loads of people actually walk around barefeet (or is it barefooted?) and very, very organised. Even the traffic is not all that bad.