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Published: June 23rd 2017
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Geo: -36.8474, 174.766
After a LONG arrival day, Day Two got off to a slower start. Wakeup at 9am local time - noon back home, so time change excuse (NZ is day ahead and 3 hrs behind Vancouver)!! Coffee press in our room - BONUS!!. Tech challenges with the Travel Blog - mobile overwriting web input upon syncing. Email catchup and the like. Before we knew it the morning was by us.
We set out across Grafton Bridge to get to other side of the city freeway system and tour the Auckland War Memorial Museum and wander round Auckland Domain (their version of Stanley Park), which is wait for it . . in another volcanic crater!
On the other side of the bridge was a small village with a Turkish restaurant where we got fantastic coffee and a pita wrap before heading down the hill to the park. Missed a street, so ended up going down to the bottom of the crater and had to walk back up to the Museum - penance for the previous day's Speights and Sauv Blanc!
The park grounds were expansive and impressive; the views, the buildings and the vegetation - massive buildings, wide open spaces, dense ravines, massive
tree trunks and local version of "xmas trees" called Pohutukawa.
On the way back down we came across the ASB Tennis Center, which was hosting the ASB Classic/Festival of Tennis, which included Venus Williams and Caroline Wozniacki. From there we crossed the freeway, through the downtown campus of University of Auckland on our way back to the ferry terminal to catch the ferry to Devonport.
However we bumped into Lululemon in transit, so HAD to do some more, YES, shopping 😊 This continued after a quick ferry ride over to Devonport, as we walked the main street on our way up to Mount Victoria - another volcanic creation.
Devonport is at the end of a looping peninsula immediately across from Auckland that looks like an island but is actually a peninsula and also has a bridge north of downtown Auckland. It is a quant little neighbourhood, with very expensive real estate, but we hear Auckland in general is very expensive. Devonport reminded us of a combination of Port Moody and Victoria.
I tried to talk Bonnie into stopping at one of the three pubs we passed before we took the short hike up Mt. Victoria, but she was far too smart for that,
knowing that if we got started in the pub we would likely not make it up the mountain or hill as it should be more aptly named, as it is only just short of 300 feet high.
The vistas at the top were impressive, dampened only by the fact that the sun was high in the sky above Auckland making picture taking a little challenging. Large bunkers and a disappearing cannon, which was erected in 1899 to prevent against the threat of Russian expansion, and a signalman's house remained from times gone by.
We had expended a fair amount of energy and were suitably parched by the time we passed The Patriot Pub, which was housed in the ex Bank of NZ branch and sported a Guinness Pints Club ranging from 100 to 5,000 pints awards!
Before taking the ferry back to Auckland, we stopped in for dinner at Manuka and sat on the sidewalk patio to take in the activity on the main street. Beef Wellington and Tortellini Carbonerra were excellent and matched by the service provided a friendly, middle aged, Maori waiter.
Dinner was followed by a stroll down the oceanfront along to the Naval Station to take in the Victorian architecture
along the way and have a few of the treats that we picked up earlier in the day at Devonport Chocolates, where we met with yet another Kiwi, who was all to familiar with the BC ski hills!!
The ferry ride home at around 9:30 was followed by the hike back up to the Langham, a nightcap and then off to bed, as our bags had to be packed and in the hallway for pickup before 8am for by Regent Cruise staff.
Another solid day!
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