I explained the crazy event of last night but I never said what I did during the day yesterday, Noember 26. I explored a bit of the city’s waterside. I first went to the Voyager Maritime Museum. They had great exhibits progressing through time. It began with the Maori traditional fishing and boating. Then the introduction of Europeans discovering New Zealand lead to immigration. Through time, boating has popularized into a sport of yacht racing. There were exhibits of the different small classes of boats, Peter Blake, the Olympics, and the America’s Cup all relating to New Zealand. It was great to see how New Zealand identifies with the sea . To explore of the sea culture of New Zealand, I took a walk along the harbor. The KZ1, the yacht sailed in the America’s Cup in 1988, was on display outside of the museum. In the harbor, the Vodaphone yacht was being worked on by a crew member.
I got a little bit of a later start today, November 27. My hostel room doesn’t have any windows so it’s pitch black with the lights off and I woke at 10:30 thinking it was the middle of the night. I got going though and made a plan to explore outside of the CBD. I headed down Queen Street to take a ferry across to Devonport. I missed the first one by a minute so grabbed a coffee and flipped through guides. The ferry ride was short only 15 minutes across and we unboarded in the central village. I stopped at the information center to get a map and then followed the walking trail through the town. I started with poking around the shops in the central villiage. There were book stores, jewelry, and souvenir stores. I then headed more inland up the path to Mt. Victoria. The high point had views across the harbor of Auckland. The view of the landscape is really unlike the rest of pristine New Zealand. After hiking down, I stopped for lunch at Five Loaves Cafe where I enjoyed an omelet outside. I’ve been enjoying finding nice meals but affordable which makes eating out well worth it. After lunch I continued walking down towards Cheltenham Beach. I wasn’t really expecting a beach day. This surprise made walking along the sand and touching water extra fulfilling. I headed up and down North Head to see the other views and back into the village to catch the ferry back.
Back in Auckland, I met with Meera (a similar girl I met at the Comedy Show who’s at the same hostel) for dinner. We grabbed some Asian food in a food court and chatted until she had to leave on her coach to the South Island. It was great to make a new friend based on the same interests – at a comedy show, getting wifi, and a student abroad. After dinner, I was heading back to my hostel and walked by Little Mexico, where our group had a farewell/thanksgiving dinner. I recognized the owner, Jose, outside and told him that I was with the big group the other day. He invited me in and made me a huge passionfruit margarita. It took me a while to finish so I stayed and chatted with him and other customers coming up to pay their bill.
I am a little bored with the straight updates of activities so I have a more interesting post coming with KIWI-isms!
Down Under 