Wheels

Helen: We have wheels! C & I are now the proud owners of a Mitsubishi 'station wagon' - can't tell you anything technical about it (it's blue if that helps) - all the oily, greasy messing about is most definitely C's department (he's in his element now what with a laptop and a car to tinker with). So...hopefully we should be hitting the road fairly soon...

Went to the Auckland Museum yesterday - we learned more about Pacific island culture in 2 hours there than we have in a whole year actually travelling in the islands! Interestingly, the display they had for Niue was very Polynesian - lots of tapa barkcloth, woven mats and tikis - but we didn't see any evidence of this at all in our visit there. Peculiar. More than any other island Niue seems to have lost its Polynesian heritage and become European (as an aside, we found out yesterday that in the middle of the 19th century The Auckland Acclimitisation Society planted lots of European plants and trees in the city to make it more like home! You can still see the legacy of this policy all over the place - I finally recognise lots of the plants from the UK after months of tropical curiosities). C took lots of photos of all the Maori carving in the museum so he has lots of ideas to take to see the tattooist...

Still totally overwhelmed by how nice everyone here is. Going to the maritime museum this afternoon if I can ever tear C away from the internet cafe.

Hx