Thursday Jan 18 - ‘Stand by for a drenching’

Not the sort of headline you want to see as you exit the hotel, but that is what lay in store for us today.  In all honesty, it didn’t fulfil it’s worst potential but let’s just say it wasn’t very fair to Auckland in terms getting around and enjoying the city.

We started out with some Queen Street shopping and then migrated down to the harbour for lunch.  Thank goodness we saw the size of some other diners meals before we ordered.  One order of pie with a salad for The was more than enough!  Portions seem very generous here but food is quite expensive.

Gentlemen need to be careful in their choice of fixture when using the bathroom facilites.

After lunch we spent time in the Maritime Museum. New Zealand and the sea have a long history together. We didn’t know it was the last habitable area on earth to be populated by humans in 1300 AD, some 900 years after Hawaii.  The America’s cup boats are downright scary! You wouldn’t want to make a mistake sailing one of these.

Above is the 1995 cup winner.

Here is a more friendly looking piece of sailing equipment.

Weather looks to be socked in for a while but tomorrow we’re off way up the North Island. Maybe it will be better up there.