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| More Xmas decorations |
We debated
how to handle today as our flights don’t leave until 10:45 PM and 11:55 PM, but
fortunately we found that we can get an hourly rate at the Crowne Plaza when
our late checkout time of 2 PM expires, so we’ve purchased enough time to keep
us camped in Hilary’s room until 7 PM and then leave for the airport.
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| Bob at the University |
We set out
after breakfast for the Auckland Museum about 1.5 miles away. We walked through a lovely park and through
the University of Auckland, down a hill and up and up into the parkland called
the Auckland Domain which includes the museum on top of a volcano rim with
great views. We went inside and started
walking through an amazing exhibit of the different cultures of the Oceania -
beautiful fabrics, shell jewelry, intricately carved wooden boat, house and
human figures.
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| Maori boat |
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| Boat sail detail |
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| Bark cloth fine as silk! |
Then we moved
upstairs to the natural history section and walked through a very dramatic
exhibit about volcanoes which, as that is how NZ was mainly formed, is pretty
relevant. The exhibit ends by asking you
into a small living room complete with sofas, a coffee table, a big TV set, and
a picture window overlooking Auckland Harbour.
The TV is on to a news program about the earthquake rumbles that have occurred
lately and how the population of the city has been asked to evacuate. A volcanologist talks to the newscaster as we
watch smoke rise from the water; suddenly the scientist says “it’s starting to
erupt!” and the whole room jolts, the lights go on and off, the room jerks
again and we see out the window a volcanic eruption from the harbor. As it gets more violent, a huge ring of black
smoke and gas rapidly shoot towards us until everything goes black!!
We emerged
rather shaken as it was very realistic! (The exhibit does have a note that it
may be disturbing to some individuals!) We continued though the rest of the
natural history exhibits and saw lots of the birds we have been looking at over
the past four weeks. It’s too bad how
faded bird feathers become over time and how difficult it is to get people
enthusiastic about birds from exhibits like this. The huge moa bird skeletons and models,
however, were pretty exciting!
As we left
the museum, there was a half size tennis court set up by the front door and
quite a crowd…there was Venus Williams playing tennis!! Not sure what was happening, but that was
pretty exciting! There is a large tennis
venue down the hill and apparently an International Women’s Tennis Tournament
is about to begin.
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| Venus ! |
Bob and I
returned to our room and packed up and changed clothes for traveling. We all walked over to the Art Gallery two
blocks away for lunch, as museums and galleries always have great cafes with
good food! After sandwiches and quiche,
Hilary and I showed Bob the artworks we had seen on our tour two days ago, and got back to the hotel to move our luggage
over to Hil’s room and relaxed, downloaded photos, etc.
At seven we caught a taxi for the airport.
Bob and I checked in, but Hilary’s flight wasn’t listed yet so she waited for
that to happen while Bob and I whisked though Security and into a huge retail
area where we managed to use up our few NZ$. We ran into Hil and wandered
around until it was time for our flight and said our goodbyes as she is flying
on her AA miles.
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| Bob happily in his Pod |
We boarded and there were our premium economy
Pods, at last!! They were great and well worth the extra money. We had a
little table between us that can be raised for an arm rest if wanted and
instead of a foot rest, we each got a bean bag to put our feet on which was
very comfortable! We got large glasses of very good pinot noir and a Peter
Gordon (the chef at the Sugar Club) dinner which was very good. We both watched
“The Whale Rider” which we hadn’t seen in years and now is much more meaningful
with its depiction of Maori life. And then we actually got a pretty good night’s
sleep, breakfast and early arrival in LA. We whisked through Immigration,
picked up our luggage, and exited Customs quickly enough to catch the 2PM SB
AirBus instead of the 3:30PM one we had reserved.
Unfortunately the traffic into SB was slow
enough so we couldn’t pick up Maddie by the 5 PM closing time at the Cat House
Hotel, I got her today (Sunday) and she’s exploring the house and checking
everything out!
Another great trip, another interesting,
beautiful country! Many thanks to Hilary for all her great driving, and thanks
to both Hil and Bob for blog editing, and thanks to you for reading!!
XXX, Katy
P.S. Kiwi fact: Kiwis lay the biggest egg in proportion to their body size of any bird. Warning: this photo is scary!
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