Day 7: Auckland

Day 7: Auckland

NZ Fact #1: Location: Oceania, islands in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of Australia


Pictures: In and around Auckland and near our condo, the only painted utility box in Auckland, DB scores another art jewelry store, a salt water pool nearby, our rental car (which today moved from the street to the garage, about 40 feet total), the site of a unique pastry (Rob’s), a ringer from our last trip (Pop Quiz Q #1: name the town), bbq envy, and lastly sail boats dotting the water outside our now wide open glass patio as we eat dinner.

Pop Quiz Q #2: What do E-ville loft and Auckland condo have in common?

Breakfast, lunch and dinner at the condo: cereal and fruit, meat pies with rolls and tomatoes, bbq’d lamb (awesome, dude!) with green beans and rocket salad and a coffee flavored croissant bread pudding muffin (from Rob's), Hawke’s Bay Pinot Gris (local wine, gift of Z&G), total of about $40.

The bread pudding muffin now pushes NZ way ahead of Australia in the pastry category.

Weather: in low to mid 70s, breezy at times, clear skies all the live long day.

In the afternoon, we do art, visiting local galleries and a temporary museum show (one of the pics is of the new museum under construction), walking from the condo into and around town. Then, in late afternoon, we catch the “link” line and end up about 20 minutes from the condo, just far enough that we need scoops of Movenpick ice cream to keep us hydrated, $7. Oh, and a local person treated us to the bus, very nice (and unnecessary of her).

We’ve got our new GPS (brought from the US) loaded with NZ settings and the various locations we’ll be visiting on the North Island. Given the names of places, roads, towns, etc., this is the ultimate test of machine and DB’s ability to navigate (THB does not do much navigation, making DB’s competition that much tougher).

And to answer one of the comments: No sighting of the boys in the Flight of the Conchords, one of the better low-key shows ever. We should’ve watched more often to get a handle on the accents in these parts.

And, to answer another of the comments: THB has no idea why he didn’t plan for two solid weeks at this exchange site. There’s a lot to do in NZ, and we can’t just be tied down to paradise such as this condo….even though at dinner there was much discussion as to why not.

Tomorrow: Waiheke Island, pronounced EYE-LAND…don’t ask about Waiheke, THB has no idea.