January 23 - January 25
Monday, January 23
We arrive back in Auckland and get a sense of deja vu. We pick up a rental car at the same place as when we arrived in Auckland at the beginning of the trip and essentially head in the same direction. We checked into our bed and breakfast which must have been quite the estate back in its time.
We get situated and decide to go to the Sky Tower. On the way, we find a Mexican food restaurant for dinner. Yummmm! Anyway, the Sky Tower was built in 1997 and is the tallest structure in the southern hemisphere at 1175 feet tall (12th tallest structure in the world). The view is pretty terrific although it was extremely cloudy and overcast.
Tuesday, January 24
It's raining cats and dogs and the wind is blowing really hard. We get a call from the America's Cup sailing group telling us that our afternoon sail is cancelled. We reschedule for tomorrow, so hopefully it will clear up later today.
To make the best of a very dreary day, we head to the aquarium. Apparently all of the parents with small kids had the exact same idea. The place is fairly small, but totally packed. We get there in time to catch the feeding of the sting rays and the other fish and have a pretty good time at it.
Next we had lunch and went to the Auckland Museum. It's a pretty good museum and they had a special showing of Leonardo DiVinci's machines (well, replicas of his machines). We both thought it was very cool and we actually get to play with some of them.
We had a Brazillian steak dinner and left totally stuffed. It was a great meal. That pretty much made it a day.
Wednesday, January 25
We don't receive a cancellation call from the America's Cup sailing, so we assume that it's a go. We first start off the day by going to Auckland's MOTAT (Museum of Transporatation and Technology). It's spread out and has an eclectic collection of items. We're basically just using this as filler until it's time to head to the wharf for the sailing. The museum was pretty good, and we don't even get to see a huge part of it (the planes).
We grab a quick lunch and then head to the boats for the America's Cup sailing adventure. They have two boats that were used in former America's Cup races that they take folks on. The one we really wanted actually races the other boat, but it conflicts with us leaving for the airport, so we opt for a 2 hour sailing. You are supposed to get the option to crew or just lay back and chill and watch, but there were so few folks on the boat (the weather's been rainy) that we all had to crew and do a lot of work. We got totally soaked, but had a great time.
Luckily the Qantas lounge had showers, so we were able to clean up a bit and change into dry clothes for the flight.
That pretty much does it. We have a plane to catch. Hope everyone enjoyed our trip with us.
Cheers!
Logistics
We're heading back to Auckland for two nights to finish up our trip before having to head back home to Houston .
We'll be at the Hastings Hall B&B for 2 nights.
The main thing we want to catch here is to experience the America's Cup. We'll actually be sailing on one of their sailboats and will get a condensed (2 hour) version of the race. Should be fun!
Sail New Zealand
We'll be catching a flight at the end of our Auckland experience to head back home.
Can you believe it's been FOUR WEEKS???
Doug and Travis in front of Hastings Hall, our bed and breakfast for this leg.
Auckland panoramic at the top of the Sky Tower.
Auckland sunset (also from the top of the Sky Tower).
Travis at a Maori carving (at the bottom of the Sky Tower).
Doug checks out one of the DiVinci machines at the Auckland Museum.
Travis makes friends with the big penguin from the Auckland Museum.
Travis wants to play with trains at Auckland's MOTAT (Museum of Transportation and Technology).
Travis enjoys an afternoon of sailing on one of the America's Cup boats.
Doug pilots the boat for a while (and we don't hit anything!).