January 12 - Day 4

 Matt was up and showered before I was completely awake. This guy. He is indestructible with unending energy. I feel so lucky to be with him. I slow him down, not the other way around.

I finally dragged myself out of bed after sleeping over eight hours! I never do that at home. Got showered and we headed out for coffee. Shared a smoked salmon sandwich and had coffee at Gloria Jean’s, same place we went on the first day. We are going to walk the city some and take a ferry to one of the islands today. I’m trying not to freak out looking at the weather in Hanmer Springs. Heavy rains on the day we are supposed to raft. I’m not sure whether we will do it anyway, or if they will change gears. We’ll find out! In any case, I’m glad to be here and can tell I’m settling in mentally to being in another country away from home. Auckland feels like a US city anywhere, in many ways. It is definitely not the unique city much of Europe offers. But we are happy to be here. 

We started the day by walking to the Auckland War Memorial. This War Memorial is in a beautiful park. It is overcast today but still pretty nice, although quite windy. After visiting the park, we walked back to our room and got our ticket to the Maritime Museum. Since the ticket was good for two days, we decided to go back and watch the documentary on Peter Blake’s life. He is the New Zealander who won the America Cup twice and was very famous for his environmental work and his prowess as a sailor. Unfortunately, his life was cut short in 2001 when he was shot by pirates who boarded his vessel when on an environmental trip on the Amazon River.

When we arrived at the Maritime Museum, we had coffee and Tasty Pies. The coffee here is so good! And everyone serves real cream with it. These Tasty Pies were very good too. Kind of like chicken pot pie. Very good. The film was interesting although I did have a challenge keeping my eyes open. That’s not new for me.

After the film, we bought tickets and boarded the ferry for Waiheke Island. It was about a 40 min ferry ride and we hiked to Oneroa Village and then on to Oneroa Beach. This is the first real beach we have seen. It was very nice. It was protected from the wind there and it was nice just to sit and enjoy the water. After hiking out, we shared an ice cream and then headed back. 

Got back to Auckland City Central and found a place to get fish and chips! We tried in Oneroa Village and weren’t successful so we were glad to find a place. The food was good and a little more affordable. 

Headed back to relax in our room for the evening. A nice day. And the weather on the South Island is still very scary. We are heading into cold and pelting rain. But we’ve had nice weather here. We are soaking it up. 

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