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| Start of the trail at the Beachlands |
Day 8: Wednesday, October 21
Explored the CBD (nope, still not called "downtown" here), toured a local museum, rode a ferry, ran a trail, and discovered NZ has a damn good craft beer scene.
Activities:
Activities:
- Awoke at 5 (I'm sensitive to sunlight), and headed out for a run along the Beachlands path. Along the way I saw a couple of chickens (chooks), and ran towards them, when I then noticed a dirt path. I veered off the pavement onto the dirt and wound up on the most fabulous trail run I'd experienced. The foliage! The greenery! The smells of foliage! (My allergies were calm so I could actually smell for once.) I ran like a little kid with a big fat stupid grin plastered on my face. The term "ran" is actually generous here, since I was so enchanted by what I saw I stopped every couple of minutes for another photo. Along the way I saw a goat on a roof, the beach, the mountains, rivers of water, valleys of rock, sheep, chickens, and everything in between. No photo I could take captured the magic of the moment. Eventually, the rains really picked up, and having no running gloves I got cold and headed back, only logging just over 5 miles. What amazing sights for 5 miles!
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| Seriously, just look at these sights! |
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| Wishing I had better photography skills at this point |
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| The trail behind vs the trail in front. Never seen one quite like this. |
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| It's a goat! On a roof! |
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| What you don't see is the giant smile on my face... |
- Once back I scarfed down breakfast and showered quickly so Suji, Dhruv, and I could catch the ferry into town. We would be on foot all day. This time I opted to wear my trail shoes :)
- The ferry was awesome. I was the only one not used to the views, so I opted to sit out back (Suji joined me). It took about 30/35 minutes to reach the port at the CBD from the Beachlands. Pretty convenient, really.
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| Leaving Beachlands docks |
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| The view en route... Can you imagine being used to this?! |
- Said by to Dhruv, who was off to Uni, grabbed a cappuccino, and began our day
- Walked along Queen Street, the main shopping strip of town
- Detoured to Sky Tower. I paid to go up top to take in the views of the city, but declined to do the bungee for monetary reasons. The tower did have glass cutouts up top and on the floor in the elevator, which delighted me, but really freaked out this little French couple as we descended.
- Suji and I then headed over to the Auckland Museum, a 3 level affair showcasing local and traditional art from NZ, from the Maori, and a bit from around the world, and is FREE. There was even a free guided tour (which we did)! I couldn't believe it. The traveling exhibit featured all the artwork from the 7 Books of the Ramayana, which tickled both Suji and I. We breezed quickly through the exhibit on the tour, and I wished we could have spent more time gazing at the pictures, but there was simply too much to see and do, and so we continued on. That museum is worth at least a good day trip.
- Popped into Elliot Stables, an enclosed space featuring foods from around the world in a food-court like setting. The interior space was quite nicely decorated and reminded Suji and me of the look of the town outside the castle in the Harry Potter books. I continued my quest to eat as much seafood as possible, and settled on getting food at the tapas bar with a meal that consisted of grilled and stuff squid, beet and walnut salad, and marinated mushrooms. I just love that Oceanic countries love beets.
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| To be fair, I was also on a quest to make Max jealous. That involved pictures of food. Lots of pictures. |
- After lunch, we went in search of K Street, famous for having quaint shops by day but being the party district by night. No luck. But we did stumble upon Brother's Brewery (okay, after we stopped in a pub for a tip) at Auckland Central (there was a coffee roaster there, too, but we ran out of time). Brother's brewed their own beers and had them all on tap, as well as a few other local and Australian selections. They also had case after case of chilled beer by the bottle, selected from NZ, Oz, and the U.S. I opted to try their sampler, a selection of 6 brews, and I threw in a couple of Oz ones for grins. They were all quite good! I don't remember liking too many of the local brews in Oz, but Brother's had managed to find some good ones and I picked up a few bottles to bring to Murph. I felt rather tipsy by this point, since their tasting samples were quiiiite a bit heavier than what you get in the US, and I had well over a pint of beer, easy.
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| That's the happy place ;) |
- After that, Suji and I stopped in a salon to get our hair did. Mine hadn't been done in weeks and was driving me nuts, and she was game enough to tag along with me. I was quite happy with how well the stylist did, although a bit sad I couldn't really get her to talk. It struck me that most of the salons there were like the nail salons here in the U.S.
- Wandered the Britomart and local mall, and drank more coffee. By that point, we were just having fun and chatting and I didn't pay too much attention anymore to what was around me, although I did enjoy poking in to the local NZ goods shop.
- All too quickly it was 6 and time to meet Dhruv and catch the ferry home
End-of-day:
- Vivek and I prepped the two mountain bikes in the garage best we could and took them back out to the trail to ride them all the way to Maraetai, a small town just over from the Beachlands area. It was getting dark, but we headed out anyway. Vivek is expert at knowing where all the best views are and delighted in showing them to me. By the time we reached Maraetai the sun had just set and lights in the city were all on. The city quickly rose up into the hillside, creating a fantastic view. After we took it in, we headed back in the pitch black, reminding me of nights spent at college doing similar things with friends. We had fun, though, and made it back safely. Although I learned I am still wildly uncomfortable on a mountain bike. I just hate those things.
- Granny cooked another good dinner. All were impressed I could handle the spice, and then I reminded them Have you met my mom?, and they remembered ;) Still don't know Granny's real name... though I found out Granny was tickled that I still wear my mangalsutra so dedicatedly.
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