The Best of Auckland

14 months after arriving in New Zealand from Southampton in the UK we are on the move again. My wife and I arrived in Auckland on 4th April 2007 and immediately set-about exploring it's wonderful diversity of flora and fauna.

We have shared some of these experiences on previous articles which you can find in the 'Around the World' section but now the time has come for us to leave Auckland and head for Christchurch on the South Island. It is Christchurch which formed the base of our dreams to live in New Zealand with its close proximity to some of the world's finest landscapes including mountains, glaciers and pristine temperate rain forest.

We head for Christchurch at the end of May and no doubt it will usher-in a new generation of articles on tree ferns on this website as the South Island is packed with all of the NZ species including the yet-to-be-discovered by The Fern House species'; Dicksonia fibrosa and lanata.

As this will be the last article from Auckland I thought it would be fun to run over a few old tree fern haunts and also highlight some new gems which are constantly cropping up whenever we go on a trip into the Bush.

So off we go and how better to start an article on Auckland than with a shot of the iconic Sky Tower which dominates the landscape from all directions. In fact this tower was once the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere and I thoroughly recommend a candle-lit dinner in the revolving restaurant at the top. Fabulous views!

The port itself is extremely busy and is frequently visited by cruise liners which dock and offload their hoardes of passengers who scurry up Queen Street to the Sky Tower.