Our Day in Auckland

We had a very nice day exploring Auckland today. We arrived at our hotel around 7:00am, checked in (we knew we would be coming in very early, so arranged to have the room from the night before so we could check in immediately upon arrival) and had a small breakfast down in the cafe in the hotel. Turns out, I was still pretty wiped out from the flight, and took a two hour power nap after breakfast. After we showered, we headed out around 11:30am. Our hotel is situated in a wonderful area, very close to the harbor. We found a great place for lunch and shared what Dick has declared is the best (fancy) burger he has ever had. Big statement!


Coincidentally, the Microsoft office is directly across the street from our hotel.


Marina area with Auckland's Sky Tower in the background


a nice shot of the harbor area



We walked along the water, then through the shopping district for quite a while. By the end of the day, we had logged in over seven miles. We went up to the top of the Sky Tower in the early afternoon (that's the next blog post). We passed a street ad for the new Hunger Games movie, "Mockingjay" which opened here yesterday. We thought it would be fun, and a nice break, to find a local cinema to watch it. The timing worked out perfectly, we found a nice theater with reserved seats, with plenty of seats available, showing about 20 minutes after we arrived.


"Mockingjay" in Auckland

After the movie, we walked back along the marina. The movie ended around 5:00pm, and we were pleasantly surprised at how light it still was outside. Of course, that's when we remembered that we're now in the Southern Hemisphere, and that it is late Spring/early Summer here. :)
It was a really nice evening to walk around.


these enormous lounge chairs made for fun photo-ops





We made our way back to our hotel, rested a bit, then found a great Cajun restaurant for dinner. It was really yummy, and a nice way to finish our day. By the time we returned to our hotel around 8:00, there was still plenty of daylight. :)