> 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.

Yeah, we had a pod of orca in the inner harbour last time I was out! And there's always a cool breeze, it's a completely different climate to the tropics. I've been to Samoa and Vanuatu and the heat just about flattened me.
In Auckland the general rule for a summer day is scorching hot sun, cool or cold air. Hard to imagine, but somehow it all works.
When it gets cold, though, it *does* get cold. And Coastguard jerseys are made out of that awful scratchy itchy stuff like steel wool in disguise ... oh well, it's almost summer.