Our time in Auckland is coming to an end tomorrow. We will be leaving this fine town, the city that should be the capital, for Rotorua. This will mark our slow and pleasant journey to the south island. Our stay in Auckland has been pretty cool. We have stayed at the Shakespeare Brewery and Hotel since our arrival. We had intended to move to a hostel but the rate was so good and the place so fun we stayed. The hotel is an 19th century structure with a pub on two floors and an operating brewery on the main floor. The room is tiny but we think it is cool. The window of our third story room opens to a fire escape that seems like a balcony and I have spend a few evenings out there. There is also a second story patio and I have tasted some of there 'home brews' which are just fine! On Wednesday we hiked to the summit of Rangitoto Valcano on Rangitoto Island. It was quite a challenge as the climb was very steep at times and it poured rain on a few occasions. We felt quite pleased with ourselves when we reached the summit both because we endured the rain and the steeps and felt we could now face whatever our vacation throws at us and because of the reward of beauty we received, an amazing view out to sea and back towards the skyline of Auckland. That evening we found Jana and toured Auckland until we found a recommended Indian restaurant. We all ate until we could eat no more and all had Mango Lassi, what a meal! and a nice visit with Jana.
Auckland is a surprising place. The Asian population, especially Korean, is enormous! We visit the Auckland library for internet access and there are large sections of the library that are dedicated to the Asian population, books, movies and papers, very cool. Auckland is built on several hills, we know because our hotel is at the top of one of many. It's basically up hill no matter what way you approach it. The New Zealander's love coffee! There are sometimes three coffee shops in one block and almost no filtered coffee is served all espresso, ummm delicious.
Some pictures will come soon. We have run into a little technical difficulty but have a plan to resolve it. Be patient. Hey! did you know that you have to go north to find warmer temperatures here? How weird is that?
Bye for now
Wes & Terry
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Well there is one photo at the bottom of the page, a slimy creature emerging from the mud.
ReplyDeleteWonder who that is?
ReplyDeleteSounds like Dave's kind of place with all that good coffee! I bet that will happen a lot in this trip; your staying on at a place because it's neater than you thought and so you'll quickly chage-up the plan. Nice to be free to do that.
ReplyDeletePretty nice weather here still; Dave and Eric went for a 55 k bike and then returned to start putting up the Christmas decs! How often has that happened? He's usually skiing by now but no snow in sight! We're even sleeping in the summer bedroom tonight, albeit with the heater on!
Keep on keeping on!
Dave and Ruth