Be careful what you wish for

As I was gathering up my things last Wednesday (prepping to leave Sydney on Friday), I couldn't find my fleece jacket (or "jumper" as it's called down here). I hadn't needed it the whole time I was in Sydney, so I hadn't realized it was missing. Sadly, I couldn't even remember the last time I had it. So, I had to go shopping... again. Woe is me. So on Thursday, Jane (my co-worker) took me to an outlet mall and I bought a nice red fleece. After work that day, Jane took me driving to see Manly Beach (gorgeous).


Later, as I sat on the bus home, I realized that I didn't have my brand new red fleece with me. What's up with that? Luckily, I had only left it in Jane's car. Fast forward to Friday. When I checked in at the airport, I was told my bag was too heavy (I was expecting that, I mean, come on, I packed for five weeks). But I was told that I could have 2 bags, each at 23 kilos. As it so happened, I had an extra bag, so at the counter, I unpacked some of my larger bag to put it in my smaller bag. Later, as I was sitting in the airplane waiting to take off, oblivious to the fact that anything was wrong, one of the flight attendants came up to me, told me I had left something at the check-in counter, and handed me, yup, you guessed it, my brand new red fleece. I love Air New Zealand.

Anywho, I decided to spend the weekend in Auckland before flying to Wellington on Sunday. I'm quite glad that I did. On Saturday I took a bus tour out toward the Bay of Islands. Absolutely GORGEOUS! Remember, though, how in my last post I mentioned that I preferred smaller tour groups? Well, be careful what you wish for. I was the only person on the bus tour. Yup, let me repeat that, I was the ONLY person on the bus tour. I'm kind of surprised they didn't cancel it. Happy they didn't, but surprised. It was nice not having to deal with all the other tourists, but being the only person on the bus, when the bus driver was giving his commentary, it was up to me, and only me, to respond. It was fun, though. The weather couldn't decide what it wanted to do, it alternated between rain and sunshine, but it was a most pleasant day. Did I mention that the Bay of Islands was gorgeous? We drove from Auckland to Paihia (and when I say "we," I mean me and the bus driver).

Before we got to Paihia, we stopped in a little (and I mean little) town. The driver gave me about 30 minutes to walk around. I found these two restaurants a little strange. Who would have thought that Indian food (or Chinese, for that matter) went with Fish & Chips?



While in Paihia we visited The Waitangi Treaty Grounds. Learned loads of fascinating information. For example, there are 21 (maybe 22) Maori tribes in all of New Zealand, and of those 21 (or maybe 22), 20 of them live on the North Island. Evidently the South Island is too cold, and there's snow, so there's only one tribe on the whole South Island. My tour guide was actually the great, great, great, great-granddaughter of one of the British men who helped draft the treaty, so I thought that was pretty cool.

New Zealand flag (top), British flag (right), and the Flag of the United Tribes of New Zealand (left)

I then took a ferry from Paihia to Russell (what used the be the first capital of New Zealand). In Russell, this cute little lady took a little tour bus around the city - ok, let's not exaggerate, around the town (maybe even village). I wasn't the only person on this tour bus, others joined in. Just stunning views of the ocean.

Long Beach

Bay of Islands

Tapeka Point

Giant Sun Dial (with mosaic)

I had a few hours in Auckland on Sunday before I had to catch my flight to Wellington, so I went up to the Domain (something like Central Park in NYC, maybe), and visited the Auckland War Memorial Museum. Auckland, known as the City of Sails (because of all the sail boats) really is a beautiful city.

Auckland Museum

Rainbow (from the bus)

Auckland Sky Tower

Auckland from the bus