City of Sails

Been here 10 days and have finally got into New Zealand's biggest city and beating heart. (With apologies to anyone from Christchurch or Wellington. Or perhaps even Queenstown)

A very cool express bus service with a dedicated road whisks you into the city centre from all points in the North Shore. But that doesn't appear to have tempted enough people out of their cars as even at 10.30 in the morning the number 1 highway south was jammed!

In fact looking around the bus I wonder if the same demographic is present as on many UK bus routes - retirees on free bus passes! Given the entire journey was on a dedicated road I am wondering why a light rail is not in place, but maybe one is planned.

Not complaining, our double decker journey left thousands of cars in our wake and dropped us right in the city centre by the ferry terminal. On a day again in the mid 20s with a rather lovely waterfront, what is not to like? Reminiscent of Circular Quay in Sydney (I'm showing off now), but much less busy!

But having said all that big cities are not really my thing, and the high rise offices and fancy retail could easily be anywhere in the "western" world. If you transplanted me to Sydney, San Francisco or London, I don't think it would feel that different. So in order to try to get a feel for the place we, as we often do, headed for the Art Gallery or the Museum. On this occasion the art got the call, primarily on the grounds it was closer. And we will have time to try other places of interest later.

Fabulous building, housing some great local and international art and with a distinct Māori feel. And it is free! A fine sign of a grown up country in my book. They did have a paid exhibition of works from the Tate in London but that felt slightly pointless, given we can see it for free at home!

Nice outdoor terrace. Not so sure about the sculpture.

Not sure if the scaffolding is part of the art

Er...?

After some fabulous Japanese food we took the long way home - the ferry to Devenport followed by three buses! Probably won't do that again, especially in rush hour! But it gave us some fab views of the city skyline - and some suburban front gardens!

A less than fabulous view. We have had a brilliant day! Auckland, we will be back very soon.

So to finish this rather brief blog, yesterday's beach day predictably ended in the Paper Moon, one of Mairangi's many bars, with a couple of pints of local brew (😂) - Singapore being the home of Tiger, and from an English perspective close to NZ - a mere 10 hour flight. Yeah, I know that is total nonsense. Might be the Tiger talking!

Tomorrow we say goodbye to Mich and send her on her way back across the Pacific to her home in Vancouver. It's been a blast, and ironically we have probably seen more of her here than we would in Canada. Safe travels my good friend, I'm sure it won't be long before we see you again. As we get older the visits seem to get more frequent. Bye for now ❤️