Final Day in New Zeland

My last morning and the alarm did not go off. I forgot to plug in the usb end! The city noise awakened me at 7:10 and up I to go. 

The hop on off tour bus begins at 10:00 and I have a lot to do. Pack both bags so I don't have to spend time later rearranging stuff. Find the Starbucks,  I am hungry for banana walnut bread. Confirm my shuttle to airport later:  check 6:40pm. And stop at the Fuller ticket office as I left my scarf at Kelly's and Simon brought it over this morning on his ferry commute. 

With bags packed and my camera ready I board the red loop bus  It is $45 NZ for an all day hop on-off tour. It is a nice way to see different parts of the city. Mt. Eden is the highest point and has magnificent views of Auckland and the harbor. Next stop - the zoo! 

I spent 2 hours there with the native birds and stopped to see the endangered tuatara. Jeff Corwin had

them on his show once. It is quite old and very protected little dinosaur /reptile. The kiwi exhibit was very nice but they know it is daytime even though the lights are low. Kiwi are nocturnal,  bummer. 

This is an awesome zoo with the exhibits appearing to give the animals environmentally appropriate room. They could improve on the signage however. Glad I had a map. Along my way out there was a small American alligator habitat. They were very very small. I guess the large ones are in Florida. 

Next to the alligaor exhibit was the Tazmanian Devil. I have seen this on tv a few times in some

nature shows, but it was much larger in person that I thought it would be. A guy in his 30's was reaching into the environment and the Devil was approaching him sniffing his way. I thought for sure he was going to bite the guy. I walked over with my camera and the Devil jumped up on a large rock and seemed to pose for me to take his photo! I took about 15 pics then he jumped down and crawled under a bush to his home.

The final section held the Sumatran Tigers. There was a school group there and the guide was explaining the habitat etc. Suddenly the male came over and became a bit affectionate with the female and the tour guide quickly led the small children to a new place. I was laughing, but the animals didn't really engage although it appeared like they might. Isn't nature wonderful?? 

While in the bird aviary this wood pigeon landed on my head! After shooing him off me I turned and

saw a sign that said: Beware our pigeon likes to perch here, and I was standing right in front of HIS place!

I've been to many zoos and thus would rank right up in my top ten maybe five. San Diego as #1, St. Louis #2, Philadelphia #3, Washington DC as #4, Auckland #5........

Last Dinner in Auckland

After a full day on Waiheke Island with the Bickerton clan, I looked for a nice place to have a dinner on the harbor. This harbor area is designed much like Baltimore's Inner Harbor with shops, restaurants and tourist museums all around the marina. I found a nice place called Wildfire which appeared to be in the Hilton as it was in the same building. All I was thinking here was POINTS!

The restaurant specialized the the Brazilian type of meat dinner for $45 per person. I was not that

hungry so I settled on pumpkin and walnut ravioli in a pomodoro sauce and a glass of wine. The meal was not a disappointment either. I overlooked the Maritime Museum with a large collection of sailboats in the harbor and inside the building. The family next to me had the Brazilian dinner and I watched various meat in large skewers go by every so often. it looked and smelled very good. Someday I'll have to try that.



The harbor in Auckland looks to handle many different activities from the ferries that handle commuters, casual sailboat tours, very large America's Cup type sailboats, industrial shipping and tourism. It is busy there from the early hours of the day to the late sunset diners overlooking hundreds of beautiful sailboats.

I tried some creative photos of the Ferry Terminal Building at night. The camera was able to capture the moving cars and buses moving in front of the building as ghostly figures with the restored Terminal in the back.

Maritime Museum

Since I had a bit of time this afternoon, I did some last minute Christmas shopping and found some fun things to bring home.

Waiheke Island

The ferry for Waiheke Island leaves every 30 minutes from the pier at the foot of Auckland. Across the street is the bus center and a scurry of activity most of the day. When the traffic lights change for pedestrian crossing all four directions of traffic are stopped and everyone crosses every which way! I would guess about 200 people were crossing this morning when I walked down to the ferry pier. All criss crossing quickly going to work.

I have photos from the ferry, but my hard disk is full and I am unable to delete anything else until I get home and check this out. Perhaps I should just upgrade to a larger hard drive (500MB). These photos take up a lot of room per picture, about 21MB.

Braised brussell sprouts, walnuts,
califlour and golden raisins.

Kelly Keiper Bickerton was waiting for me on the dock when our ferry pulled in. We had been emailing for about a month about this visit. She taught with us at CFPMS for only 3 years, but it seemed longer than that. After that, she married Simon who is a NZ native and they moved here. She is is happily raising two kids, Bradon and Kate in their lovely home on Waiheke Island.

We started with a coffee and catch up about people and places at home. The island has many designated walking trails along the coast so we went for a hike. She showed me some really fabulous shoreline, cute towns and then we got to the business of the day, wine tasting. Each of the wineries we visited had it's own unique feel and design, but all were located with a beautiful view.

One unique place we visited was an olive oil processing plant with tasting room. There were 5
different oils to taste and each had a special flavor. I ended up purchasing two small bottles and a spice mix to bring home.

The day finished with a quick bite in town with Simon, Bradon and Kate and a small beer tasting. I'm

Olive Oil tasting room.

missing Iron Hill Wit Bier! I took the ferry back to Auckland and being beat, I went directly to my hotel after a few pics at the marina. There were several racing sailboats there like the type used in the America's Cup. They are huge at close view.

A short walk back to the hotel to get ready for my last day in Kiwi Land!

Shaking olives from the tree.