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Published: February 2nd 2010
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We were awoken by the group of five that were headed on a day trip at 6:45am since their bus left at 7am, they didn’t hear their first alarm clock go off at 6:15am and freaked out. Luckily, they backed their day packs the night before and got a decent night sleep as we all went to bed around 9:30pm.
Pete and I booked another bus ticket back to Auckland at 8am since the Kiwi bus leaves every day from Pahia but Saturday. Pete wanted to see his friend Scott and his wife, Negar, who live in Auckland for more than a few hours on Sunday evening.
Scott was a foreign exchange student at Rex Putnam HS when Pete was a Senior and they reconnected on Facebook. It took us about 4 hours to get back to Auckland and they picked us up at the bus terminal then took us around the city from a locals standpoint.
First, we went up to Mt. Eden which had an awesome 360 degree view of Auckland. Then drove down to the Auckland Fish Market for some lunch and walked around seeing all the fish that was caught that morning and was
up for sale. We were able to taste lots of samples of fish, bread and spreads all delicious. Our lunch was great as we had to have Fish n’ Chips, I had a sampler with lots of different seafood and Pete had only fish.
After lunch Pete, Negar and I all walked along the Viaduct area which is along the marina. Then headed to the ferry building to buy tickets as Scott moved the car. We went over to Waiheke Island to stay for the evening at their friends parents weekend home.
Wai in Maori means water, Maori are the native people of NZ. We took the 4pm ferry as it was 2:45pm when we bought our tickets and still needed to get our bags out of the car. It was a warm day in Auckland so we decided some ice cream would be a nice treat before getting on the ferry.
Once arriving on Waiheke Island Jono, Scott’s friend, picked us up to go back to his parents weekend home. The island has a quant feel also as there are lots of cute little shops, cottages and also million dollar estates. Jono’s parents just completed an
8 month renovation to their weekend home and it is fabulous. Jono turned 30 recently so it was a weekend escape and birthday celebration for Jono.
His girlfriend, Alyce, pronounced Elyse also, is a teacher and NZ starts their school year on Tuesday, Feb. 2nd. Monday is an anniversary holiday for Auckland so everyone has the day off work. We hit another holiday during our two country tour in the Southern Hemisphere. Their were 8 of us total as the house for the evening. We cooked a great dinner including; salad, grilled veggies, sausages, steak, and ended with NZ candies and chocolate. We also had LOTS of wine during dinner and afterwards.
We watched the Women’s Final of the Australian Open with Serena Williams(USA) vs. Justine Hennin(Belgium), but Pete and I fell asleep before the end of match. Serena won in the 2nd set, GO USA!!!
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