Auckland 2-13-2012

This morning Mike and Deb made their way through the Auckland Domain to the Auckland Museum.  The Auckland Domain has many sculptures along the walkway so it made for an enjoyable walk.

The museum has 3 floors - the first centers on the people from New Zealand, the second focuses on the natural history, and the third is the war museum.  On the first floor there are three Maori buildings.  One is a beautiful meeting building where you can take off your shoes and enter the entire building.  Mike and Deb capped the museum tour with a coffee break at the museum cafe.

From the museum Mike and Deb walked to the Newmarket and Parnell neighborhoods.  We first walked through the Newmarket neighborhood and had a fantastic lunch at Safron, a Mediterranean restaurant.  There were many lunch specials to chose from.  The shops in Newmarket were mostly international stores (Lush, Nike store, etc).

Then it was on to the Parnell neighborhood.  The shops in Parnell were small boutiques, no famous international stores.  There were also many upscale restaurants.  It was fun to walk down the main shopping street.  We stopped at a park with a perfect view of the Sky Tower.

We walked back to the hotel and met our friends Cindy and John and Mary and Mark.  We will all be going on the cruise together.  We walked around the shopping area (High Street and O'Connell Street) and first had drinks along the harbor and then dinner on Vulcan Street at a pub.  Although they were out of fish and chips (Deb's choice) there were other very good alternatives.  The guys all tried different New Zealand beers. It was a good time with lots of good conversations.


For a complete set of photos from today, please view them at: Auckland 2-13-2012