A full day today. We caught the hop on - hop off Explorer bus at 9am outside the ferry wharf in Quay St. By 5pm we had hopped off at five different spots.
First one was Bastion Point where we had good views of the harbour and talked to two council rangers about the lovely garden they were caring for.
We helped them lift a bag of cuttings onto their truck and they suggested other gardens to look at. We descended to a lovely walkway around the water's edge and liked this stone restaurant with its rustic fence covered in lichen.
This playground would have been useful on our last visit to Auckland in 1978.
We spent half an hour at this stop.
Next stop was the Rose Garden in Parnell where a lot of the roses were just flowering. We saw a thrush sitting in the fork of a pohutakawa tree warming her eggs.
A friendly man gave us a quick history of the area including the Prime Minister's property nearby. He also pointed out the huge pohutakawa tree that had large branches resting on the ground.
We spent half an hour here also, just time to walk down to the beach.
Next was the Auckland Museum which we had visited in 1977 and spent one and a half hours having lunch and watching the Maori Concert.
They used the pois.
They threw the short sticks to each other. Can you find the ones in the air?
We saw the 100 man canoe with its decorated bow and stone anchor.
and many other maori artifacts. We bought some souvenirs and a DVD and a CD.
After that it was the Auckland Zoo which we have seen a lot of from their TV show. A helpful volunteer took us into the dark room and helped us find two kiwis behind the glass. The morning had been rainy so there were not many people in the afternoon. We did not get wet and enjoyed a two hour stroll.
The junior giraffe has grown since he was on TV.
We were so close to the tiger it was scary.
Everybody loves the meercats.
Finally we spent an hour at the Museum of Transport and Technology where we saw old cars, trams, radios, etc.
The doubledecker tram was something we had not seen before.
This was the best organised city tour we have seen on our trip and would recommend it highly.
First one was Bastion Point where we had good views of the harbour and talked to two council rangers about the lovely garden they were caring for.
We spent half an hour at this stop.
Next stop was the Rose Garden in Parnell where a lot of the roses were just flowering. We saw a thrush sitting in the fork of a pohutakawa tree warming her eggs.
A friendly man gave us a quick history of the area including the Prime Minister's property nearby. He also pointed out the huge pohutakawa tree that had large branches resting on the ground.
We spent half an hour here also, just time to walk down to the beach.
Next was the Auckland Museum which we had visited in 1977 and spent one and a half hours having lunch and watching the Maori Concert.
We saw the 100 man canoe with its decorated bow and stone anchor.
and many other maori artifacts. We bought some souvenirs and a DVD and a CD.
After that it was the Auckland Zoo which we have seen a lot of from their TV show. A helpful volunteer took us into the dark room and helped us find two kiwis behind the glass. The morning had been rainy so there were not many people in the afternoon. We did not get wet and enjoyed a two hour stroll.
Finally we spent an hour at the Museum of Transport and Technology where we saw old cars, trams, radios, etc.
This was the best organised city tour we have seen on our trip and would recommend it highly.
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