Auckland, New Zealand

Our 6 nights in Auckland were spent in an Airbnb apartment near Takapuna beach, which is about 15 minutes north of downtown Auckland. It took a couple of days for everyone to adjust, and for the most part we split our time between catching up on school, planning logistics for future travel, and seeing some of the city sites.  It's been a bit of a challenge remembering to look right to see if cars are coming when we cross the street, and seeing drivers on the right side of the car.

Our first morning there we walked along the beach, which was long, wide, and flat, with large volcanic rocks often separating it from the houses.  We saw all ages of people and soon learned the kids were at the end of a short school break.  We found a cafe for breakfast and immediately became fans of New Zealand food - often fresh, organic, and unique combinations (a bonus for mom is that pumpkin is in season here, so it's a flavor to remind her of the fall back home, but the Kiwis are not familiar with pumpkin lattes).  Afterwards we continued our walk and the kids collected snails, starfish, and seashells.  On our way back to our place we walked up a street that had really nice homes on it and learned this was Minnehaha Street, which we found interesting with our association back home!

Observing hermit crabs, snails, & starfish

Our place had kayaks and an "optimist" sail boat at our disposal, which we were really excited about. Little did we know though that the weather is all over the board here as it's spring. The water felt like Prior Lake in April, so while we did walk and hang on the beach some, there was little swimming to be had.  Mom actually bought a knee-length winter coat on clearance as we've been told it will get much colder as we head south!

Kayaking

Collecting seashells

Pushing the sailboat to the beach

The boys sailing!

The hallmarks of a developed nation have certainly not lost their effects on us as we thoroughly enjoyed all the luxuries we take for granted at home....and in English! We watched some movies in our place and even went to a theater one night - a real treat. We visited the Sky Tower, Wartime Museum, took a ride on a real sailboat, and walked through Kelly Tarltons SEA LIFE Aquarium, which has a life sized replica of Ernest Shakelton's Antarctic mission post and was very cool to see (great book BTW). We also attended church at Harbourside Church, which was a fantastic body of believers (and unbeknownst to us, home of the New Zealand Dream Center based off of the one in LA, where our home church is sending a team to serve in the spring)!  Mom and dad even got a great date night one evening, dining at a fabulous restaurant near our "home". There were familiar stores right up the street and even a Starbucks!  The boys highlight was seeing a Maclaren, where the passenger opened the door and let them check out the interior - no ride was offered though.

Auckland Sky Tower in background

View from the Sky Tower

Minecraft Virtual Reality Gallipoli, a museum highlight!

Captaining the sail boat

Worship at Harbourside Church

Boys gawking at the Maclaren

The Kiwi people certainly did not disappoint, as they are known for their hospitality. On one of our first bus rides, a local got off a stop early just to help us. We met a professor from the University who spent time chatting with us about things to do and showed a keen interest in our adventure (this was a welcome convo as we parents were at our whits end with the kids at that particular  moment and an adult conversation rejuvenated us a bit, which we found funny once we realized the truth of how starved we sometimes are just to feel a connection to another adult).

Spring is beautiful here as there is a lot of color with things in bloom.  There are cherry blossom trees blooming, and these incredible rose trees and bushes.  Another thing mom's noticed is that they have rosemary bushes here and they are used as shrubs on the sides of streets and sidewalks.  She even saw parsley being grown for decoration in a garden patch at a roundabout!  All of this makes for many pleasant smells as we walk around.

Walking amid the cherry blossoms

Rosemary shrub

All in all, it was a wonderful week despite the colder than expected temperature, and we thoroughly enjoyed the Takapuna/Auckland area.  Dad visited another foot specialist and got some inserts to help with his feet pain.  We got around mostly by city bus (which was expensive), but also used Uber and a shuttle service (no tuk tuks or mototaxis here). In hindsight we should have rented a car, which would have allowed dad to practice driving and probably cost about the same in total, but provided more flexibility for us. Oh well, live and learn. Our next 17 days will spent in a campervan so we can only assume a lot of learning is about to commence.