|
| 4:46am |
Rachel and I played Solitaire; Tubby
continued to sleep. Given it's a one-person game, I mostly played
the role of pit boss, and would have escorted out anyone who became
unruly during the games. |
| 5:32am |
At rumour of a police gaming raid, we shut down all games and went
back to bed. |
| 7:41am |
The collective woke up, prepared to
go out. I prepared my camera. |
| 8:10am |
Waiting for the girl to do her girl stuff in the water closet, and
the boy to stop babbling about local weather patterns, I read the
phone book. While there are differences, most are subtle
ones. |
| 8:19am |
And many things are just the same
-- traffic on the way to work gets jammed
up here, too. |
| 8:20am |
New Zealand's Ministry of Health isn't one to beat around the bush
with their
messages. |
| 8:26am |
We arrived at
Foodtown ("for good food") and wandered in, discovering
cute
little carts for those who don't need a proper metal buggy, but
more room than a plastic basket. |
| 8:29am |
That 12-year-old
sex story from yesterday... apparently the Justice Minister's
suggestion isn't sitting at all well in the public eye. (This is a
continuation of the news headline we saw outside a market yesterday
while in Manukau.) |
| 8:34am |
Mmmm, Bart
Barts. With yoghurt... well, Tubby didn't fancy those at all,
as you'd expect. |
| 9:05am |
With NZ$26.35 spent on snacky items to stem the breakfast and lunch
meals (and a bargain considering it works out to about US$18 without
the use of the neighboring
Burger King), we arrived back at the hotel to assess our
bounty. |
| 9:13am |
A lovely chap of a luggage delivery
sort arrived with two suitcases that looked awfully familiar. And
there was much rejoicing. |
| 9:17am |
The consumption of bounty began with Tubby nibbling on the Nerds
confectionary, "Nerdalicious". It was apparently, indeed,
-alicious, and the boy figured he'd need to take some home and share
with small persons who appreciated such sugary treats. |
| 10:38am |
The updates are done for yesterday
and letters home drafted, so we're heading out to see what's outside.
(Yes, we draft hours before we send -- mostly waiting for traffic
on the motorway to thin out.) |
| 11:02am |
We arrived in town after the 12.7km trek, and found a decent enough
carpark. |
| 11:10am |
Surfacing on the street and to the
filtered sunlight peeking between the clouds above, we made our way
over to Queen Street and gave a look about. |
| 11:19am |
Starbucks #1 was sighted. Much to my horror, there wasn't one on
the opposite corner. Someone is asleep at the wheel... |
| 11:27am |
Indeed! It took us eight, yes, eight!
minutes to find a second Starbucks. Clearly, the Seattle-based brewmasters
haven't completely flooded this city with their froth-and-foam. Yet. |
| 11:38am |
We arrived at the water front and gave it a look see. |
| 11:40am |
It seems that without too much trouble,
if you get enough sunlight reflecting into
the camera, any day can look bright and sunny. |
| 11:54am |
Kea
is camping here, IKEA is furniture worldwide. A subtle difference,
but an important one. |
| 12:22pm |
Owing to a reasonably price and having
the time, we took a harbour cruise deal, and got to snap pictures
from a water-based
perspective. |
| 1:29pm |
We got back to shore just in time for the 60th minute to click away,
but not before we managed to snap a picture of the guide and captain,
Win,
as a FrankPal. |
| 1:54pm |
We headed over to the Victoria Park
Market, which was supposed to be all the rage as far as shopping goes.
But by evidence of the number of tour buses outside, it was a bit
of a disappointment -- I can buy touristy crap anywhere; and yes,
this was such a place. |
| 2:41pm |
We began the path to the Auckland Domain and the museum sitting
at the top of it. |
| 3:10pm |
We arrived at the top of the Auckland
Domain, but very much unlike Tubby's explanation of the place,
it wasn't just "around the next bend", but a mostly uphill
Imperial death march up to the thing. Not everyone made it, but everyone
gave a gallant effort. |
| 3:54pm |
Our little club arrives back along Queen Street, but the thrill
of lunch has passed; odd. |
| 4:14pm |
We make our way back to the car park
and pile in, and wander about for a while. |
| 4:26pm |
Shellshock is just one of the cute little shops we happen by. This
one sells jewelry and beads, as it turns out. Anyway, for the bulk
of Auckland photos and sights, try
here. |
| 4:39pm |
We managed to work ourselves back
into traffic on the way home. But at least when merging, the traffic
department has a suggestion for how to do it -- be like the zipper. |
| 5:07pm |
Feet were comfortably placed back into the hotel room, and everyone
else got cozy as I set down to the business of strangers... and web
updates. |
| 7:04pm |
I wrapped up today's updates and put
editing touches on the previous few days, as we prepapred them to
post. And we argued about a meal option. (Yes, two hours to compose
these updates... do you see how much I care about sharing?) |
| 7:52pm |
We're safely snuggled back into the hotel, although it's a bit chilly
(reportedly 11ºC / 52ºF). On an up-note, the file posting
has begun to bring everyone up-to-date. |
| 8:31pm |
If you're keeping track, it takes
about 40 minutes to post 5 MB of updates (pictures and pages). |
| 9:23pm |
Everyone's read their mail, and that's that. Goodnight, Gracie. |
| |
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