8-12-19 - Exploring Auckland for the day
/Day 57. Leanne here!
Ok sometimes a travel mistake is just meant to be. A mistaken flight time gave us a full day to explore Auckland we weren’t anticipating. After dropping off Nephew Brendan (at the airport for his flight home at 530 am), we took full advantage of the opportunity to see Auckland in 10 hours or less.
The first stop was Auckland’s SkyTower. Given the kids are now loving rare adventure opportunities, the marketing pitches at the entrance wooed the thrill-seeking teenage appetite. One is called Skywalk where said-lured tourist wears a harness and walks along the outer edge of the tower 50-plus stories high. You can even lean over at 45 degree angle as you desire. The other feat possible is aptly called SkyJump, a jump straight off the tower for 11 seconds down of pure gravity, adrenaline-surge and perhaps complete fright down (harnessed in but still).
Just watching others tourists do this scared me half-silly - so I was glad my first mom-expected “no” sufficed when the teens asked to partake. If only Kyle were here” I’m sure went through their minds. It was pretty easy “no” for me - they are quite frugal with their own funds on this trip this far so I just told him they had to pay themselves. No one seemed interested in parting with that much cash for adventure I’m happy to report.
But we were all rewarded for our caution and frugality because we ended up catching a full rainbow sporting over Auckland during our 30 minutes at 53 stories high (ok maybe a rainbow isn’t thrilling but it is rare) - and we snapped several good photos of it! Pot of gold for sure.
Because it was raining we opted for another indoor activity. My first thought - Museum. Kids first thought - bowling! They won, then I won.
We headed over for a midday Monday morning competitive bowling game to a near empty bowling alley. Afterwards it was time for some culture so we headed to Auckland Art Gallery for some memorable exhibits.
One was the life work of New Zealander Frances Hodgkins, a prolific painter who lived the life of a traveling artist in the early 20th century. She trailblazed through the art world that was not so welcoming to women at the time. One of her most famous paintings was “Farmers Daughter”, something I call myself. (For those of you who do not know, I grew up on a farm.). At the risk of sounding hokey, this revels was a sign telling me I was exactly where I needed to be that day. Mistake and all.
Last stop for day was the Internet cafe full of locals gaming (don’t these people have jobs or school?). Amongst the gamers was one gorgeous guy - Kyle who spent the day working and planning ahead for the trip. We find Kyle once again frustrated after a days worth of mediocre WiFi (an impediment throughout the trip so far). But we told him we had no fun without him.
Off to the airport for our flight to Budapest via Dubai. From rainbows to art to gaming fun, I was thrilled my booking error gave us a day to enjoy New Zealand’s most populous city. I’m counting on more future mistakes turning out just fine.
