Auckland - City of Sails

I hope you're not getting bored with this blog. I'm not. This has been such a great trip and I doubt I would remember half of what we did if not for this blog. If you're reading this, thanks for following along. 

Today we came ashore in Auckland and toured the central part of the city. We ended up at the Auckland Museum and even though we have been to countless museums, it was very interesting. We learned more about the immigration of the first settlers and of course, more about the Maori people. Today they make up a tiny part of today's population and almost all are inter-bred with other cultures, yet their culture dominates in NZ. And, it is very cool. 

Even though it is the national bird of NZ, the kiwi is endangered and practically extinct. The closest we got to seeing one was this stuffed specimen in the museum:

Next - off to a neat little Aquariam where they had a huge display of live penguins. Very, very cute and they loved mugging for photos:

They look stuffed but they are alive. (I wish I could upload my video to this blog.  I haven't been able to do that.)

As it turns out, Marc caught a cold and was pretty miserable today. Here he is eating ramen noodles on our terrace:

Here he is sleeping while I write this:

I am eating take out Thai food and enjoying this view:

And this - which is our ship, Le Soleal, leaving Auckland with a new load of passengers:

Hopefully Marc will recover by tomorrow to enjoy our last full day in Auckland before we pack up and head home into the blizzard. 

I have to say that even though we have been traveling three weeks, I hate to see this trip end. It's really been fun. 

Our little gang all dressed up a couple of nights ago:

The boys from Europe:

Stay tuned...