Auckland (again)

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We got back to Auckland last night. We had a good but slightly bizarre dinner- we went to this place where they serve you raw meat and these really really hot stones that you cook the meat on. That's all fine and good, but the temperature of the inside of the place got ridiculously high by the end of the meal because the a/c wasn't on.

Then this morning, we had breakfast and took the Explorer Bus to the Auckland Museum. The Explorer Bus is a tourist bus that goes in a circular route and you can hop on and off as you like over the course of the day. The Auckland Museum was really nice. They had all sorts of Maori and Pacific Islander artifacts on the 1st floor, and we went to a Maori performance of songs and dances (about 30 min long) that was really interesting. The 2nd floor (or "first storey" as they referred to it) was all about the natural history of the islands. They had this great exhibit on volcanoes. Apparently Auckland is built on top of 40 something volcanoes, but only 18 are left at this point. One of them blew up millions of years ago, creating the Auckland harbor and surrounding area, and the explosion was huge, compared to Mt St Helens and Krakatoa. Then the 3rd floor was about its war history, starting with the wars with the Maoris in the 1800s to the UN peace keeping missions of today. A lot of it was obviously centered on WWI and WWII, very interesting because it focused on battles that I'd never really heard of, since they involved NZ soldiers, instead of US soldiers.

Then we went to the Auckland Zoo, which I really very much enjoyed. We got to see a Kiwi! They are much bigger than I realized, about the size of Isobel in fact. I had been thinking that we might smuggle one home for her to play with, but once I saw how big they were, I realized she might not like it so much. They had beautiful birds, a great African animals display, some sealions, and lots of other animals. It was a really nice zoo.

Then we took the Explorer Bus back into the city. We just got back from a very nice dinner. The weather is phenomenal here- high 60's, not at all humid. Perfect for walking around. Today is their last day of summer, so I suppose our last day of winter, so at least we have something to look forward to!

Tomorrow, our flight leaves at 6:40 pm on Mar 20th and arrives in LA at 10:30 am on Mar 20th. All very weird. I think we get back to Boston at 9 pm on the 20th. How very sad, back to reality.

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