Breakfast is included here at the Pan Pacific Hotel where we are staying in Singapore. The breakfast buffet was amazing. They had breakfast food from China, India, Malayasia, Japan, Singapore, Europe and the Americas. We each had a little bit of everything.

We discussed what we wanted to do today with the concierge. I asked him if he thought it would rain and whether he thought we would need our rain coats. He said nobody wears a raincoat in Singapore because you would get very wet from sweat in a raincoat He loaned us an umbrella.

We went out for a walk along the Singapore River where some of the old immigrant architecture still remains. It was all absolutely fascinating. But oh my gosh was it hot. 88 degrees and 71% humidity.

The Singapore Grand Prix will be Sunday, October 11. Much of where we were walking was along the course. They were busy setting up the course, bleachers and barriers.

The heat, humidity and sun were oppressive. We stopped at a restaurant along the river walk to rehydrate. Duke had a cold Tiger beer and I had a Lychee beer slushie

The river walk was lined with restaurants. We saw several Mexican – Indian Restatants

On the way back to the hotel we saw a Red Junglefowl. According to the bird identification App Merlin, it is the “original chicken”.

About 5:30 we set out to find the jazz club where Duke had bought tickets. Singapore has lots of malls, pedestrian bridges and walkways. Using them you can theoretically get to places while mainly staying indoors. It didn’t work for us. We kept getting turned around. The walk should have taken us 19 minutes instead it took 45 minutes!

It was a great day.

Today was a travel day. We left our hotel in Auckland about 7 am. Our flight left Auckland at 10:30. We flew on Air New Zealand. It was a ten hour flight. We had absolutely wonderful food and service. In fact it might well have been the best flight I have ever had.

There is a four hour time change between Auckland and Singapore so it’s midnight in Auckland now and only 8 P.M here in Singapore. We are trying to stay up for hopefully a couple more hours

It’s very hazy here in Singapore but it looks like a beautiful city.

Today is our last full day in New Zealand. Tomorrow we fly to Singapore. It rained almost all night last night, but we woke up to clearing skies this morning. After a great breakfast at the Grand Mercure Puka Park Resort we checked out and drove to the Pūkorokoro Miranda Shorebird Center. We walked through the bird sanctuary and saw thousands of of fascinating birds. Some of the migrating birds here migrate all the way from Siberia and Alaska.

Tonight we are in Auckland. We plan to leave for the airport about 7 tomorrow morning.

This morning we went for a walk on the beach near here.

We had a very relaxing day reading and taking it easy. This afternoon we went back to the beach and recorded our car review video. I’ll publish it in the next few days.

Last night we had a very good dinner at Mina Restaurant here where we are staying. So tonight we ate there again. It is nice not to have to drive anywhere.

Tomorrow we drive to Auckland and Saturday we fly to Singapore.

This morning before we left Hilltop Whakaipo Estate, Peter showed us around their farm. He raises sheep, deer, and cows for the meat. He also harvests his own hay for when the grass in the pastures isn’t enough.

About 10 am we packed up and headed north. We stopped a couple of times to stretch. About 2 we arrived in Pauanui on the Coromandel Peninsula.