> I just found this little site and thought maybe some of you might like to see a few of the places I see, out on the water. These particular photos are of Waiheke Island, one of the larger of the 60 or so islands scattered around Auckland. (The exact number depends on what you are prepared to call an island. If you count seagull perches, there are probably hundreds.)
> The photos here are fairly typical of the Hauraki Gulf coastline and islands (on a *nice* day, of course, which seldom seems to happen when *I* am on duty...)

That photo-shoot looks every bit as enticing as the ads for various Caribbean islands in the western world. The big, huge bonus in NZ would be that Waiheke probably doesn't have that unbearably exhausting *heat* continually plaguing those tourist traps. That, and then in NZ there's the interesting climate favorable to the various penguin and sea creatures all around.