Spent part of the day today in Auckland, and no, I didn’t eat the entire time. I could have settled for a quick breakfast in the hotel except they were hosting some horde of hundreds of kids. Mostly boys, a few girls, who knows why? They were being fed family-style in the restaurant which last night meant several of us waited for the dust to clear before attempting to acquire food. The staff looked weary.
Today I gave up on the idea and stashed my suitcase and started off. The street was quiet, it being Sunday. A couple ahead of me were looking for breakfast too. We all went into a very nice looking cafe only to be informed that they don’t serve breakfast on Sunday… I’m not sure where they ended up but I went with a place in a narrow arcade. They served a quite nice breakfast with a good cuppa tea. I took the “add avocado” option, expecting a few slices and got a whole peeled and pitted fruit. Eeks!
Thus fortified I went off in search of the sky tower. Hard to miss it – it’s pretty tall in the landscape. Quite the crowd there already but I got in and up pretty quickly. The elevator had a partially glass floor and gave glimpses of the view as it went up. We all got off at the main observation deck where I grabbed a seat at a newly opened table and sat down. (This walking around stuff was wearing me out this morning.) Ordered another round of tea and sat admiring the view and soaking up the free wifi. Amazing isn’t it when you’re able to hear a friend’s good news, reply to it and get a reply back in real time – back and forth across the world?
Hung out there for awhile taking some photos and then started back towards the hotel. Stopped at a park where the Auckland Art Festival was in full swing. I grabbed a seat along a shady stone wall and enjoyed listening to some live ragtime music and people watching. The sky tower was in view and all of the sudden I saw a row of orange appear near the top. I brought my camera up to ready position! I’d seen the people getting ready to bungy and they were all fitted out with orange jumpsuits (guess they don’t approve of people losing bits of loose clothing on the way down). Sure enough – out came a hand over the edge and there went a jumper.
Although I’d found the couple of jumpers going by the windows as I sipped tea a little disturbing, this was just fun. Other people watched the pigeons and other people and I watched the people crazy enough to jump off this really tall building.
Finally, I walked slowly up the very steep hill and back to the Kiwi and retrieved my suitcase. I sat in the lounge awhile before heading out to get the airbus express back to the airport. Once there I had a really good lunch and ginger beer and figured out what the heck I was supposed to do next. Now I’m ensconced upstairs watching the landscape as the afternoon starts to fade.
Great way to get ready for the return trip. Love looking about and watching people. These picture capture a part of the trip most people get uptight about. You instead enjoy it. Way to go. See you soon. Love