Since Dallas Fort Worth!

Well, this is the 2nd time I'm sending this post - tried yesterday but having typed or at least 30 minutes I then went and lost it all! So hopefully more successful the 2nd time!
So I left you in Dallas Fort Worth Airport and thankfully made it to Vancouver in the end! There I stayed with my friends Sunita and Franck who moved to Canada in March. For those of you who know them, it's true what Sunita says, they are obviously very happy there which was really good to see and it was lovely to spend time with them. Those who know Sunita would also not recognise the woman that you all know and love because the first day I was there she took me on a bike ride and then a couple of days later on a hike! AND, she even owns a hiking stick to help you walk up hill! Anyway, it was all good and the views both from the bike ride to the beach and hike up the mountain were amazing. It is very easy to see why they're so happy there. We also did a BBQ on Wreck beach one evening. On approaching Wreck beach there is a a sign that says clothing is optional and so when the sunset appeared I was faced with 2 dilemmas. Firstly, was photography allowed on a nudist beach, and if it was, would the very tanned not very attractive naked man standing in front of me enhance the photograph or detract from the view?!?! Fortunately he moved on and so I didn't have to worry about the latter! I should probably say, we decided to keep our clothes on for those of you who were wondering!!
After spending a lovely few days with Sunita and Franck I got the bus down to Seattle and a flight into San Francisco which amazing was fairly uneventful giving previous travelling traumas! Even saw the Starbucks HQ on the way! I arrived into San Francisco to be greeted with the infamous SF fog! Fortunately it had cleared by the next day and so I spent a few days walking up - and down - some VERY steep hills (they are so much worse than they look in the movies!), went to Sausalito, Fisherman's Wharf, Alcatraz, Golden Gate Bridge and of course, had the obligatory ride in the Cable Car! I met some lovely people in SF as well, including Esra a really funny Turkish girl who I shared a room with and had many laughs with .
From SF I had a connecting flight through Los Angeles to Auckland which should have been easy but the fog was back! So my flight got delayed and instead of having 2 hours in LA I ended up with 55 minutes! With changing airline from AA to Qantas I had to check in for the Qantas flight when I got to LA and with being delayed I was a bit concerned I wouldn't get my aisle seat but all was good and the check-in guy nearly got a kiss when he said there was still one available!
So at the weekend I lost a day from my life (the 8th of September is gone forever!) and arrived in Auckland at 4.45am. Yuck! Fortunately my lovely friends Rachel and Jim had paid for me to have a couple of nights in a hotel as a joint birthday and Christmas present and so the lovely hotel let me in check in that early which is good as it turns out there is virtually nothing to do in Auckland on a Sunday in early spring! Having heard it described as being like a wet Saturday afternoon in Hinckley I can see understand the description! Fortunately as I discovered the next day when I met up with Chris and Kiri, once you leave Auckland things improve considerably! We went to Mission Bay which was lovely. Chris used to service the piece of equipment I worked on in the UK but he managed to escape the evils clutches of Bio-Rad and he and Kiri moved to Auckland the week before I got here. Having only stopped a couple of nights in Auckland I went to Waiheke Island which was so beautiful. Actually I should say now I'm out of Auckland everything I've seen is so beautiful, you could just spend the entire day taking photos! The hostel was a little odd as it felt like I'd stepped into a hippie commune and so wasn't really me but it was very relaxing! (without any chemicals before you ask!) Whilst there I went to do a wine tasting in Stonyridge Vineyard and by some stroke of luck the manager had decided to open a bottle of their $200 a bottle the previous day and so they were offering tastings (normally they don't - you have to just buy one!) so of course had to try it and it was delicious!
I'm now in Pahia which is very touristy but very easy to get to non-touristy places form so today I've been to Waitangi Treaty Grounds where the treaty that marked the "birth" of New Zealand was signed and then later I've been to Russell which has the most amazing views. Was a bit cliched last night as in the hostel we watched LOTR! but with scenery like this you can so see why you'd want to make movies over here!