Auckland

We spent the day just relaxing and sorting bags at the motel. We all needed a bit of recovery time. I spent the afternoon booking accommodation and travel for the rest of our time here.

Towards dinner time we decided to visit a local restaurant. The guy at the motel reception recommended "The Bar & Baa" Seafood Bar & Grill as being one of the best restaurants in South Auckland. They even pick up from your motel and return after dinner. We were picked up at 7:00 pm and driven to the restaurant which had an Indian and Greek influence. The meals were great. Bridget and I had seafood platters, Daniel had a T-bone and Paula had Seafood Saganaki. I would certainly recommend this place to anyone.

Today I walked to the top of Mangere Mountain, which is an extinct volcano. There was a great 360 degree view from the top, and you could see the Sky Tower in Downtown Auckland. The view from the top looked out over Manakau Harbour.

When I got back we finished packing the bags that we are going to leave here at the motel while we travel around NZ for the next two weeks. Then we went and cuaght a bus into Auckland. We were able to get a Group Pass, which allowed the 4 of us to have unlimited travel on the bus system for the day. We got off in Downtown Auckland and walked to the harbour. Auckland is known as the City of Sails, and apparenetly 1 in every 5 Aucklanders has their own boat. There is water and island everywhere. We walked all around the harbour area, and the Ferry Terminal. and decided to take a Harbour Cruise. It was quite a warm and sunny day, and the views were fantastic.

The only hassle with the day was when we were trying to get the bus back to our motel, we found that they were not all that frequent, and we had to wait nearly and hour for the bus.

When we got back to the motel we organised the bags that we were leaving and took them to Reception. They are storing them in their linen area, and we have booked the shuttle from the motel to the airport at 8:30 am. We have a 10:00 am flight to Queenstown, and then a week at a resort in Wanaka.