Today we explored Auckland. Auckland is one of the few cities in the world to have a harbor on two separate major bodies of water. Auckland straddles a volcanic field which has produced about 90 volcanic eruptions from 50 volcanoes in the last 90,000 years. About 1/3 of New Zealand’s population lives in Auckland. While looking up these facts about Auckland I found this info on Wikipedia about New Zealand “New Zealand is about 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and 1,000 kilometres (600 mi) south of the Pacific island areas of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. Because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans. During its long period of isolation, New Zealand developed a distinct biodiversity of animal, fungal, and plant life. The country’s varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks, such as the Southern Alps, owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions.”
We started our day with breakfast at Baa Baa Black Sheep across the street and then walked to the harbor area where we had seen a tourist office the night before. We bought tickets for the ferry to Rangitoto, a volcanic island that formed during a single phase of eruptions that may have lasted only 5–10 years about 600 years ago. Today it is a national park. The ferry ride was only 25 minutes. Here are some pictures of Auckland from the ferry.
We walked on the coastal path which as you would expect was mostly along the water. Occasionally it would turn inlamd. The landscape was “fields” of black lava rock and small areas of plant life. The water was turquoise and the sun was shining. We were alone on the path. It was really nice.
We walked for about 2 hours and then we returned to the dock to catch the ferry back to Auckland. Once back in Auckland we went to the Asian street food alley which had small stalls serving street food from a number of Asian countries. It was hard to pick but I got Beef Rendang from Malaysia and Rick got Thai noodles. The process was fun and the food was tasty.
Next stop, the maritime museum. Auckland is called the city of sails and the museum was filled with sailboats with a focus on New Zealand’s recent America’s Cup victory. Here are some pictures from the museum.
We left the museum with the intent of going out to Waiheke island for dinner but the more we thought about we didn’t want to take a 40 min ferry ride each way for dinner, so we went to have a drink at the Sky Tower. Here are pictures from the Sky Tower.
While there we met a very nice lady, Judy, from New Jersey and talked to her while enjoying the view and our drink. Outside the restaurant was a track on which people were skywalking and bungy jumping. I could do the skywalking but no thank you to the bungy jumping.
Judy had to leave for a dinner reservation so we left too. We decided we wanted pizza and with the help of TripAdvisor we found the best pizza restaurant in Auckland. We had delicious Neapolitan pizza.
We walked back to the apartment and got packed up because we leave tomorrow.