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Its Easter Sunday and we are off on a boat ride and tour of Waiheke. Waiheke Island is in the heart of Auckland’s sparkling Hauraki Gulf, a picturesque blend of farmland, forest, beaches, vineyards and olive groves. We do a bus tour around the island and stumble across a Winery called Wild on Waiheke. They have a great little micro brewery and even serve their takeaway beers in plastic coke bottles. Only problem its a no liquor without meal day so we order a tasty garlic bread pizza. 
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We stumble across a fantastic brewery and decide to grab a some choops (or chips as some say) and a few of their tasty beverages. 
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We started off the day with a short drive to Motat a really interesting technology and transport museum come theme park. There were some wonderful displays. 
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We survived Good Friday with very little beer, so we are surprisingly sparky, its a great day to do a bit of a roadtrip and see what we can find around Auckland. We drive across the harbor bridge on the motorway – its very much like motorway patrol, plenty of battlers in busted up old cars that shouldn’t really be on the road. There sure are some interesting cars and mods are sometimes bizarre. New Zealand gets dumped with a lot of second hand Japanese cars so their are plenty of weird models to see. We found a chicken along the way, don’t know what his story was, he was miles from anywhere so we took a photo of him. The scenery is spectacular, this country doesn’t seem to have a flat piece of land, there are hills on top of hills on top of hills and its so green, every shade of green. Surprisingly very different to Australia. 
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Mac’s meal service closed things were looking grim so we headed back to the hotel and noticed the bar was open for guests. There really is a beer god! 
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Its off to Macs Brew Pub for some Good Friday ales, we can only drink while we are dining, so its going to be a very slow meal. Pub is great, really funky and there are some wonderful beers on tap. 
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Its a bit damp out there but not cold so we decide to take a boat ride over to the north sore to a place called Devonport, but the pubs are closed- bummer! 
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Being Good Friday pretty much everything is closed, but the casino is open so we wandered up there to see what was going on, surely the have some exemption for the demon drink, it is a Casio after all. The casino is under the huge skytower that is the highest point in Auckland and the country for that matter. The casino is no Crown but its a substantial size, gambling starts at 12 but no liquor sales, mmmmm the day is not off to the best start. After a fantastic night out on the town, Friday has turned to tears, its Good Friday and liquor is forbidden, sounds a bit un-Christian, Didn’t Jebus turn water into wine, and die for our sins, What are we going to do? Nothing in the mini bar, no what are we going to do? If we had have known this yesterday we could have stocked up…… We might not be able to get a refreshment in this town today…AAARRRR!!! – can we go back to Australia? Fortunately things are not as grim as we thought, a few places are open serving meals, like the great Mac’s brew pub behind our hotel. The food is delicious and you can order a moderate amount of beers with your meal. So we eat slow, and after a visit to the hotel’s bar we find it is open and serving beers.. Yippee!!! 
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We arrive in Auckland after a easy flight, and pick up or blue XR6 from the Hertz dealer before heading into the city to find our hotel. Its a bit overcast but not a bad day. A quick check in then its time to explore the city, from first glance it looks Adelaide size maybe a bit bigger. Like Geelong the city is right on the waterfront and that’s where the action is. The Auckland harbor is pretty spectacular, might not be quiet as good as Sydney, but the grey overcast skies might be taking a bit of the beauty away. But i sure is stunning and the whole foreshore is packed with all sorts of leisure activities, pubs, clubs, bars, restaurants and cafes. You could get very comfortable here, just a shame its not a bit warmer. Being our first night we start by visiting a few of the pubs, and it soon turns into a great pub crawl, there is plenty of action in this city, its so vibrant with the long watefront full of things to see and do. There are so many great pubs, bars and cafes, we could learn a lot from this place. The precinct started its rejuvenation for the America’s Cup challenge a few years ago and the marina area is just sensational. Things in the pubs are a bit like home, the bands are all playing the same crap, Jessies Girl, Brown Eye Girl the same old tired stuff, but they do through in the odd slice of heaven,..no joke we have heard it at least three times tonight. 
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You might remember from our last roadtrip we had difficulties getting home from Los Angeles. The Qantas Scarebus was grounded due to parts of a plane falling off while flying over Indonesia and we had a long delay while Qantas found some crusty old 747 from their graveyard and checked to see if all the bits it needed get airborne. Well for putting up with the horrible inconveniences of another night in LA, free accommodation and just too much free booze in the private lounge of the first class lounge, once that diva Diana Ross had left it to us, we were compensated a free return trip. So we are heading to New Zealand for Easter. We put this voucher to good use and here on our way to New Zealand for a Easter getaway. The morning starts in the lounge at Tullamarine knocking back a few complementary beverages and a few tasty bites for breakfast while the rest of the waiting passengers whinge, listen to screaming kids and wait uncomfortably before joining the long queue in main airport terminal. … Think we are becoming snobs!
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