Scouting Exposition- Part 2

First impressions of Auckland…



Very clean! No trash…er, I mean rubbish on the streets, etc.

Very ethnically diverse. It was not uncommon to see a person of a very obvious ethnicity, say Chinese or Indian, but then they begin to speak in a heavy Kiwi accent! Or hear several different languages spoken while just waiting at a crosswalk. Once while chatting with Mikaylie on the telephone, she asked if I would get someone to talk to her so she could hear the accent.  I laughed and said, "I could ask 9 people before I find someone with an actual Kiwi accent!" 

Fairly mild for winter. A light jacket was all one really needed. Unfortunately, mine was in my luggage so I had to buy a new one!  The funny thing was that many locals dress as though it would snow at any moment.

Kinda quiet for a city- you could hear the vehicles on the streets but not much of horns or sirens, etc.  And the people were rather quiet. It didn't really feel like a bustling metropolis.

Have yet to see a Pepsi product! Love me some Coca Cola!!!

Prices weren’t quite as high as I had feared.

Had many of the usual food places- Subway, Starbuck’s, McDonalds, etc.



Once we got our room we took a nap then headed down to the hotel restaurant for a seafood, brick oven pizza with 2 glasses of wine for $20NZ, including tax and tip! Finally we turned in for the night in exhaustion.



Friday morning we ate a breakfast buffet in another hotel restaurant. We checked with the concierge regarding our luggage and learned that they would, in fact, not arrive at the hotel until the afternoon. Meanwhile, my legs were killing me from making two mad dashes in airports in topsiders (good for easy removal in airport security but terrible for sprinting!)!!



On to the Sky Tower, the tallest building in the southern hemisphere where one could do somewhat of a bungee jump. We opted not to do so simply because it was quite chilly. (That’s our story…) Extraordinary views!!



Next we headed to the harbor for a whale and dolphin safari. It was a lovely cruise around Auckland’s harbor for four and a half hours.  The first three and a half hours we took in the beauty of the islands around the harbor, as we didn’t see any whales and finally saw HUNDREDS of dolphin in the last hour, just as we were heading back in. I managed some terrific photographs, though they will need some editing because most are off center from just snapping repeatedly.



When we arrived back to our room, Praise God! our luggage was there!! Gave them all a quick hug then retired for the evening. It was all of 7:00pm! We didn’t even eat dinner.



Saturday we boarded a twin engine bound for Taranaki Region.



To be continued…