First full day in New Zealand! Today was the Best of Both Worlds tour. In the morning, the tour group visited various locations throughout the city of Auckland. In the afternoon, we went to more wilderness locations.
First stop was the Auckland War Museum. (Alas, I didn't have time during my visit to go inside. Our stop today was merely for the exterior.)
A few hundred yards down the hill from the museum is a small winter garden. The smell of the flowers was absolutely WONDERFUL. Walking inside this greenhouse was such a breath of fresh air. (Not that things smelled bad outside -- it didn't; it was merely neutral.)
The brilliant way that the greenhouse area is structured, all of those flowers are actually in individual pots. So, at any point in time when a portion of flowers is doing poorly, all they need to do is remove the one pot and replace it with a different potted flower. MUCH easier and more versatile from a design perspective.
The war museum from the bottom of the hill, right outside the winter garden.
En route to our next destination:
Next was a brief stop for a snack and to enjoy the beach view.
Across from the beach (where some college kids were playing touch rugby) is Rangitoto Island -- Rangitoto being the most recent volcano that erupted here... about 600 years ago.
Part of the menu available at our pit stop:
Next up, we made our way out of the more central part of the city, crossed over Waitemata Harbour via the Harbour Bridge, and up to Mt. Victoria for a spectacular view of the Auckland city skyline.
Looking in the other direction from atop Mt. Victoria, once again a view of Rangitoto. The items that look like mushrooms are most certainly not. Several of us -- incorrectly -- guessed that these were lights. In point of fact, these are actually air vents for a reservoir that is underneath. In recent years, the school kids at a school just a short distance down the hill from this location came up and painted the plain gray vents to look like these mushrooms.
Finally, we closed out the first part of the day by crossing back over the Harbour Bridge, making our way into Westhaven Marina, where we dropped off a few people who would be going on a different tour for the next half of the day, and picked up and additional tour guide. Westhaven is the largest marina in the southern hemisphere -- nerly 2,000 ships. The boating industry boomed in Auckland (and New Zealand writ large) after New Zealand won the America's Cup in 1995 (since the winner is the host for the subsequent edition four years hence).
Next, the Lower Nihotunu Dam, and several biological lawnmowers (i.e., sheep) right next to it.
We then continued our way towards Arataki Centre, where we had views from the Tasman Sea to the Pacific Ocean, and then further on to the west coast black-sand beach and a lush rainforest.
Finally, we made a quick stop for afternoon tea on the return drive to town, and enjoyed the view of the water.
Across the street were a few cows and calves.
Back in town this evening, the Sky Tower was lit up.
After walking what felt like forever to get to a restaurant we had passed during our drive in the morning and enjoying a good and fast meal, I made my way further afield to take in the legendary Hokey Pokey ice cream (vanilla ice cream with chunks of honeycomb swirled in it), dipped in some exrta honeycomb and milk chocolate. I expected something very different. Not only was the ice cream at this particular store not quite up to snuff from a texture standpoint, the flavor was lacking compared to what you would think honey would taste like. And while the texture was only a flaw for this particular storefront, when I tasted hokey pokey ice cream in a couple of other venues in my remaining New Zealand ice cream shops, it didn't live up to the hype. C'est la vie. A great day finally come to a close.
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