My little cherub, Garth, arrived in Auckland for a wedding so I flew in for a few days. I had booked cheap flights and was becoming alarmed at flying out with China Airlines, especially when I saw that the 'plane had black streaks on it. But it was lovely inside and the staff were great. Interestingly, a teetotal flight.

I had missed Auckland out when in New Zealand so this was a chance to catch up. Auckland is expensive; everything is expensive, especially houses. Garth and all of his six figure salary friends from the City had no budget. I bought a round of drinks before dinner one night which cost just A$86. And then I paid for dinner...

I met up with Iain and Vicki and there two horrible children. They had sailed from the UK out to New Zealand on a 28 foot boat which is more than 100 years old and have now settled in Auckland and their boat, Dolphin of Leith, is in a berth reserved for classic yachts at the marina.

The flight back with Emirates was different to China Airlines. The idiots had overbooked the flight (one of the new massive A380s) and I had to go first class. Poor me. It is a two storey 'plane and they keep the working class passengers downstairs and they have no access to us superior beings upstairs. This is the way to travel but I never knew how much free champagne you had to drink when on first class. And the port with the cheese was just perfect.

I plan to leave the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron and start on my journey north on Wednesday 15th...