I was wide awake at 3 in the morning! Soon fell asleep again and the alarm woke me at 8. We went and had breakfast then came and packed our rucksack for the day although at that point we didn't have a plan. We strolled to the top of Queen's Street which is the main shopping thoroughfare then crossed over and strolled down the other side. Fiona decided some retail therapy was needed so we went into Smith & Caughey's - think GH Lees as was. We dropped her purchases off at our room and then walked to the ferry terminal. We decided to take the ferry over to Devonport, just a 15 minute ride across the bay. We strolled along the prom and then back into the small town window shopping, Fiona found a quilting and fabrics shop, I found a bench. We had lunch and walked up to Mount Victoria which soars to 285 feet high but affords fine views in all directions, its an old volcano and the lava flows form much of the towns bedrock. After walking down we walked back through the town and a short way along the promenade in the opposite direction towards the naval yard. Then back to the ferry terminal for the 15.45 crossing. We walked down the wharf by which time it was happy hour. After that it was back to the hotel to freshen up before our evening out up the Sky Tower, the revolving restaurant is on the 52nd floor, it does a complete revolution once an hour. The table reservation included a visit to the observation desk on the 51st floor so we arrived early to take advantage of that. Amazing clear views. It was pretty hot all day, highs of 26C with clear blue skies, red nose even with Factor 50.

Tomorrow we pick up a car and drive to Rotarua.

We heard from Audley yesterday to say that the TransAlpine train is starting again earlier than expected and we can now take it so they are altering our travel arrangements for us.