New Zealand - Feb 24

February 24 - Friday


proof of life


We were supposed to have had a Segway tour of Auckland.  But since it was raining lightly the tour company cancelled.  I guess the rain would make things difficult.  We had gone to the designated meeting place and waited, and waited, and waited.  It was only after a phone call that the cancellation was discovered.  The down side was that neither the Segway tour company nor Viator bothered to let us know of the cancellation.


But not to worry, we can figure out something else to do.


First we jumped on the hop on hop off bus for a tour of the city.  Where the tour around town was interesting in that you got to see a lot of the city, the narration was somewhat lacking.  More time was spent talking about the rugby team than I thought necessary.


During the tour we hopped off and took a WETA Experience tour.  This WETA tour demonstrated through a semi-interactive experience some of the various techniques used in movie special effects.  It was interesting although none of us had ever seen the movies that were showcased.



After this excitement we went shopping for a short time while waiting for a dinner reservation time.  Didn’t buy anything, but got some Gigi Christmas ideas at the kitchen store.


We found a Mexican Restaurant that was quite good.  They used a lot of mozerella cheese instead of cheddar or jack cheese, but the food was still good.  Nachos, burritos, fish tacos, and enchiladas  were on the menu.  The odd thing about the restaurant was the bowl of tortilla chips that was supposed to have served six people.  The bowl was hardly large enough to hold two cups of flour let alone enough tortilla chips for six people.

tortilla chips and guacamole

nachos

fish tacos

enchiladas

burrito


After dinner we made our way back to the hotel to pack up for a Saturday departure on the ship and to call it a day.


BUT WAIT!  THERE’S MORE!


Around 11:30 PM the fire alarm in the hotel started to sound.  All guests were to evacuate.  We put on shoes, shirts, pants, and a jacket, grabbed our passports and wallets, and made our way out of the building.  As we made our way into the hallway there was a faint smell of smoke.  Once outside (in the rain) we gatered up in whatever shelter we could find to be out of the rain.  After two or three minutes the firefighters left.  Another few minutes after that we were told we could return to our rooms.  We never did hear of the issue, but it did bring some excitement, albeit late at night.


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