A day spent in  Auckland in winter without getting wet.

After a very late night and getting to bed at 0230am, Jen and I were woken at 0730 by the builders next to the hotel, the girls didn't stir so we caught a taxi to Avis and now we have our RAV4 for the next week of travelling. We woke the girls up after we got back and headed downtown for an early lunch. Got ourselves temporary NZ sim cards for the phones and headed off to Auckland Domain and ventured into the museum, $60 for us to go in so we baulked at that and instead sauntered down to the Wintergardens where we went into the green houses and the Fernz fernery - very nice area in the middle of the city.

Next stop was Mt Eden and the extinct volcano, absolutely awesome views of Auckland from the top.

 

 Next stop was the Kelly Tarlton's Aquarium which was very good. The penguins were hilarious when a couple of keepers entered their enclosure, they thought, "You beauty, feed time", but must have seen the bag and tray the attendants carried in as they were attending a sick penguin and then suddenly all bolted for the water.  We were in time for stingray feeding time but they weren't particularly hungry but did eventually meander their way around the tank and bump up against the poor girl who'd gone to all the trouble of getting herself half submerged in order to feed them so that she wasn't fully wasting her time.  Amazing that they are as heavy as they are - the ones in the tank were about 200kg but they can get as heavy as 350kg!

Did some grocery shopping and the girls wanted "Burger King" for dinner and Jen and myself were too tired to argue so we had that and got home with the comfys on and will have an early night.

On to Waitomo caves tomorrow to visit the glow worms.