Hey all,

For what it's worth, I thought I'd recommend a dive and travel agency in Auckland. These folks helped me set up an itinerary for diving the Poor Knights and going to Australia. I got a bed-and-breakfast in Nganguru, dives with Dive! Tutukaka, and a trip and live-aboard to the Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef. This with Taka Dive.

The place is called First Light Travel and the man to talk to is Brent Narby. This is a travel agency the specializes in dive excursions and hiking/backpacking. It is a combination dive shop, though, so divers are the first consideration (I believe). Brent is so helpful...a great guy! He helped me change my rental car from a manual to automatic (he even drove me to the rental agency, as I was having a hard time shifting with my left hand...haha...and driving on the left). When I got lost in Auckland, I went to the dive shop, and Brent bought me a beer, sat and drank with me, and got me straightened out.

Here's their website: http://www.firstlighttravel.com/ , and by the way, you can chat live with them from the site. I hope this doesn't sound too much like Brent has paid me for advertising. :-D Not the case at all...he just provided me with some of the best customer service I have ever encountered, and I wanted to pass that on. He deserves to be recognized!

Cheers,
Doug