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Overslept by a bit. Rushed down for poached eggs. We have a few varied things to do taday: book at least one night in Tonga (which night? [24th or 25th] Do we cross the International Date Line?), buy a swimsuit, go to a dive shop ([for] dive computers, shorties and boots), sort out a car for our return. No Net Club!

The dive shop directions are pretty straightforward. Up the road, turn right, turn left. Sadly, I turned right at the first set of lights, Helen brought the map of New Zealand [rather than the streetmap of Auckland] and nobody seemed to know where Dominion Road was. Two and a half hours later after a lot of local directions we were there. The dive computer [we were interested in] was the same price (50% more than the UK) as we'd seen them advertise on the Internet. Odd that. Besides they had none in stock.

We had a nice lunch over the road, though. We didn't see a single bus on the 40 minute walk back (they do run on a Saturday) and I sun burnt myself. Swimsuits seem quit expensive in New Zealand [NZ$ 30-60 for each part of a bikini set].

The general population in Auckland is Asians, Polynesians, tourists and a few white guys. There seems to be a penchance for Japanese sports coupes with very noisy exhausts. We went to cost out the Sky Tower, NZ$ 10 for backpackers. How do they tell? It turns out you need a YHA card or equivalent. And [we] tried to fathom out the rules for the Americas Cup [quite big over here]. Quater final losers who did well in the round robin [stages] get a second quater final chance! [How does that work?]

We bought sandwiches for tea to keep costs down [we have been running at about budget -- yikes!] and resolved to do some laundry.

We didn't do that, nor have we booked Tonga, yet. [We] haven't planned [our way round] New Zealand [for] when we return, nor booked a car. Useless! At least we haven't gone to Net Club today (though we needed to [in the end]).

An early night (11) and resolve to get up early tomorrow and do something useful.

PS. We've shifted rooms again and this is another one with a strange odour. You get used to it [the odour] quite quickly but you only have to be out of the room for two minutes to spot it again on your return.

City YHA, Auckland S36.85673 E174.76274 Elev. 104m.