Auckland

Day 9. Friday, January 20, 2006. The New President Hotel (the President must be new because the hotel sure isn’t) is only about four blocks from the harbour. A walking path along the harbour passes the Ferry Docks, several fish markets, marine businesses, many restaurants, and what we were looking for, a fruit and vegetable market. Having acquired breakfasts for the next couple of days, we continued along toward the Harbour Bridge. Along the way we saw a small penguin busily darting to and fro in the shallow water seemingly feasting on the abundant minow-like fish. It seemed to us that he was a bit out of place here, but there he was. Auckland boasts the tallest tower in the Southern Hemisphere at 328 meters. Observation decks are at 194 and 220 meters. For the adventurous, there is the Skyjump, a plunge from 192 meters, and the Vertigo climb, scaling further upward to the 270 meter “crow‘s nest“. We just couldn’t fit these two activities into our schedule. The Waterfront Café has a marvelous selection of seafood, Sharron tried the terihiki, I had Green Lipped Mussels (yes, mussels have lips) with coconut and red curry, and a Monteith’s Summer Ale, made in New Zealand.
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