15:30 (GMT+12), 21st October, Kingsford Smith Airport, Auckland, North Island, New Zealand. I pass through customs with a 6 month tourist stamp added to my passport and no hold-up. Seeing my good mate Andy Hall sitting there playing on a PSP I walk over to greet him. He stands up and gives me a manly hug and a hand shake. We exchange informalities. It was great to see a familiar face again. We both had noticably longer hair and smaller guts than when we first met in Sydney 6 months earlier and both commented on how well the other looked! To the city we headed. We hopped on the bus outside of the airport and continuing our conversation on the airport shuttle bus we discovered we had both bought enough alcohol to sink a small cruise ship and we both fancied a drink. The scenery was green, the sun shining, but the temperature was lower than we had both anticipated as we entered Auckland. Andy had just flown in from tropical Fiji and I had arrived from tropical Broome via flights from Perth and Sydney and the weather took us both by surprise. Not ones to bother about the lesser important things like shelter and warmth, we thought we ought to get our priorities in order. The first place we looked for; a bar. We settled for one in the marina off the main street in Auckland city centre. We lugged our backpacks to the nearest table, dumped them and Andy headed in for a couple of pints. The first of many to come on our New Zealand tour.