day 02

Today I spent $30 on a jar of honey.

It was a long day.

I took the Auckland Explorer Bus Tour, where I saw the BIG 10 attractions of Auckland. 

1. Ferry Building

2. Bastion Point Lookout (Mission Bay Beach)

3. Kelly Tarlton's Antartic Encounter and Underwater World

4. Rose Park Gardens (no roses, since it's winter)

5. Holy Trinity Cathedral

6. Auckland Museum

7. Parnell Villiage

8. Civic Theatre (Queen Street)

9. Victoria Park Market

10. Sky Tower 

America's Cup Viaduct Harbor (drive through, no stop)

I met a nice Austrian lady on the bus, that works for RedBull,  and we hung out all day. It was interesting to see new sights with someone with a totally different frame of reference than myself. She had never been to the states or NZ. 

Seeing Bastion Point/Mission Bay Beach and looking out across the water, I finally felt like "Hey! I'm in New Zealand and it's really pretty! Maybe this wasn't such a dumb decision after all..."

After this, I visited Kelly Tarlton's, where I found that penguins can be really big, probably twice the size of my cat. I also realized that NZ stingrays are the size of small children and are related to sharks. I got to see replicas of Captain Scott's cabin from his Antartic expedition. It didn't look like much fun. They ended up eating the horses they brought and many men died of scurvy. They did have a nice piano and many tins of potted meat, which is totally my favorite of all potted things.  

My next stop, the Auckland Museum, was a strange place. Since most NZ history is relatively new, the first two floors looked like an antique junk shop with lots of costumes, furniture and ceramics. The next floor was filled with Maori tribal artifacts and a recreation of a tribal house. Adjacent to the museum were two greenhouses and a fern forest. These were, by far, my favorite sights of the day. I could spend hours in the fern forest if it hadn't been so cold and I didn't have a bus to catch.

Tomorrow I plan on getting a PO box, figuring out why my phone won't work, and visiting Mt. Eden. Also on my list is maintaining my sanity and not getting sick from the sore throat I have at the moment. This $30 manuka honey better make me well, or I am going to be pissed.