We woke Sunday morning to another beautiful, warm day. Actually it got quite hot today, felt like 80 in the sun, 60 in the shade, which is typical around here because the sun is really strong (broken ozone layer).
After breakfast in the kitchen of the B&B with the other guests (a very gay male couple, an older couple from England, a middle age - our age - couple from Florida, and a young Japanese couple who were getting married this afternoon), we packed up, checked out, and left our bags in her front hallway, and headed out.
We took a walk to the North Head area which is an old cinder cone from a 600 year old (not that old) dormant volcano located farther out in Auckland Harbor. We walked to the top of the cinder cone and could see for miles around Auckland and the surrounding islands. The harbor is huge, really a bay on par with San Franciso Bay, and has hundreds of boats of all kinds and islands of all sizes.
After our walk, we made our way to the ferry terminal and caught a ferry to Rangitoto Island, the 600 year old dormant volcano. It was fun getting out on the water and those ferries really move! After all, they have a schedule to keep and do it quite well. The only thing on Rangitoto Island is lava, young trees and bushes, people and a tractor that pulls a tourist "train" round the island, and most importantly to the top of the island so we didn't have to walk up. At the top we could look down into the crater, and also got a 360 degree beautiful view of all of Auckland and the islands.
By 5:00 we were back in Devonport, retrieved our luggage from the B&B (Stanley let us in the back door) and caught another ferry across the harbor to Auckland's main ferry terminal, where we knew we could catch the airport bus. While waiting for the bus a couple we had met back in Queenstown walked up to us! Small world! They had been sitting at a cafe and saw us get off the ferry. Keep in mind this meeting was several hundred miles from where we had first met.
This night we stayed at a hotel by the airport so we could easily catch our early flight out in the morning. The flight went from Auckland to Sydney, Austrailia, then to San Francisco.
Until we meet again, New Zealand...
After breakfast in the kitchen of the B&B with the other guests (a very gay male couple, an older couple from England, a middle age - our age - couple from Florida, and a young Japanese couple who were getting married this afternoon), we packed up, checked out, and left our bags in her front hallway, and headed out.
We took a walk to the North Head area which is an old cinder cone from a 600 year old (not that old) dormant volcano located farther out in Auckland Harbor. We walked to the top of the cinder cone and could see for miles around Auckland and the surrounding islands. The harbor is huge, really a bay on par with San Franciso Bay, and has hundreds of boats of all kinds and islands of all sizes.
After our walk, we made our way to the ferry terminal and caught a ferry to Rangitoto Island, the 600 year old dormant volcano. It was fun getting out on the water and those ferries really move! After all, they have a schedule to keep and do it quite well. The only thing on Rangitoto Island is lava, young trees and bushes, people and a tractor that pulls a tourist "train" round the island, and most importantly to the top of the island so we didn't have to walk up. At the top we could look down into the crater, and also got a 360 degree beautiful view of all of Auckland and the islands.
By 5:00 we were back in Devonport, retrieved our luggage from the B&B (Stanley let us in the back door) and caught another ferry across the harbor to Auckland's main ferry terminal, where we knew we could catch the airport bus. While waiting for the bus a couple we had met back in Queenstown walked up to us! Small world! They had been sitting at a cafe and saw us get off the ferry. Keep in mind this meeting was several hundred miles from where we had first met.
This night we stayed at a hotel by the airport so we could easily catch our early flight out in the morning. The flight went from Auckland to Sydney, Austrailia, then to San Francisco.
Until we meet again, New Zealand...
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