December 31st to January 4th - Happy New Year and Road Trips - Part One

We decided to see out 2015 in fine style and with a bang. We treated ourselves and family to a prime spot location to see Auckland City's Fireworks display. That all went good and well, but it was the early hours of 2016 that will make this a New Years to remember.

Downstairs in downtown Auckland a live band was playing, so after the midnight festivities, we decided to head down to join the crowds. Yours truly, ie moi, usually shuns large crowds. I am anti social and prefer the company of my nearest and dearest. So this was a bit of a first for me for a New Year's Eve celebration.

Well I needn't have worried, but I hate to think what may lurk out there in YouTube land. A group of young Indian gents nearby saw me getting my boogie on and gyrating my geriatric hips and invited me to join them for a dance - which culminated in a dance off between me and a 20 something Indian Mover and Groover. The same also happened with a Chinese Granny, who congratulated me on my boogey. Which is all well and good, but on completion I had to pose for selfies with numerous of each of their individual groups. So this short plump pink haired Granny achieved her five minutes of fame. Yes there is a video made by George, but I sure as heck aren't posting that for public consumption

New Year's Day dawned and it was very wet. Our first stop to take the family was Kelly Tarlton's Sea Life Aquarium

Yes I am puffed up with my own importance

Which way is the party guys?

We then drove up to the top of Mount Victoria in Devonport, Auckland for a birds' eye view of the Auckland city skyline

Confession time! This is the only photo I took as it was blowing a gale force wind. I let the others do the sightseeing duties and I maintained vigil from our vehicle.

This was followed by a visit to Sky Tower Auckland for some more panoramic 360 degree views. A lot of people freak out at the thought of standing on the glass floor panels. Lots of things do scare me (no photos taken whilst on swing bridges for instance), but as for this, definitely not

That was the first day of 2016 done and dusted. On to January 2nd and I thought I had better take a photo of our wonderful inner city hotel view from our room

A View to Die For.. Yes if I had to look at this every single day, I think I may well jump!

Then totally out of character for an inner city '4 Star' hotel (cough cough splutter splutter), I found this wonderful piece of graffiti art in the garage basement

Time to drive up North to catch up with family.  As Snow Planet is very close, we decided to have our first coffee of the day in the Cafe there so they could see what NZ'ers who do not have access to snow do - remember the saying "Build It and They Will Come" and yes they do.

We can't leave Snow Planet without me sharing their Loo With A View - the Ladies and Mens are the same (not that I checked out both, but thank goodness for modern technology and instant photography)!