Rainy Bus Tour Day and Two Museums - Auckland

December 14, 2014 

8:30 a.m.

We went to bed about 8:30 p.m. last night, and didn't get up until 7:00 a.m. this morning, so we are definitely on Auckland time now.  It feels great!  Having showered and had breakfast, it is nice to just sit and relax and look out at the city.  We are on the sixth floor, so we have a decent view.  Danika is sitting on the sofa typing her blog.

The city is much older and dirtier than I remember, but it might just be because I am in a different part of the city, or because it was gorgeous with bright sunshine the last time I was here.  Today there is 100% chance of rain all day, so we will be taking a bus tour and possibly going to some museums.  It will be interesting to see what I think after we have been out and about a bit more.  Right now it is pouring down with rain and it feels very much like being in Seattle.  

6:00 p.m.

We decided to take the bus tour of Auckland and visit museums since it was raining all day.  We walked down to the Ferry Building and caught the bus right at 9:30 a.m.  We were five minutes early and David had just enough time to go and get tickets.  It was difficult to see things because it was raining so much and the bus windows were fogging up, but we had really nice conversations with the bus driver and we learned quite a few things along the way.  We had one of those bus passes where you could get off at a stop and stay as long as you want and catch the next bus. These pictures should give you a good idea of the weather!

The views were nice, too bad the weather was so rainy...  We went to the Rose Gardens where many weddings are scheduled this time of year.  We didn't stay to walk around though... too cold and wet!

The first place we got off was the Auckland Museum.  We spent two fabulous hours wandering its halls.  We learned about the Maori culture.

We were able to watch a master carver work on a large piece...

The large pieces are used in these Maori meeting houses called Wharenui...

 We also learned a lot about the history of New Zealand.  Danika particularly liked to see all of the displays of clothing.

They really liked walking through the old time towns as well...

There was a huge section on flora and fauna, and the best part was the shark!

In the earthquake and volcano section we went into a place where you sit down in a living room and look out the front veranda and watch the volcano erupt.  The earth shakes and the room moves, and then you see the water bubbling up and then it explodes and hot lava and ash come at you until the windows are covered.  It was really fun to do with the kids.

 However, my favorite part was the WOW, World of WearableArt.  It was amazing!  Here are just some of the clothes...

There were bras as well, and these two were great.  This one was made of hedgehogs!

This one cracked me up.  The artist's statement said. "Inspired by the death of my budgies - they are close to my bosom."

This was Danika's favorite...

We had a lovely lunch of panini sandwiches at the museum before hopping on the bus again.  This time we got off at the Museum of Transportation and Technology (MOTAT).  This is the one that Jason wanted to visit.  I thought we would stay there for about an hour, but two hours just flew by as there was so much to see and do.  The kids really enjoyed all of the interactive displays.  There was even an Earthquake Cafe and it had a little booth you could sit in and the whole booth shook like you were in the middle of an earthquake.  The kids had a laugh with the old time rotary phones and they couldn't believe that David and I grew up with them.  There was also this black out dome that only the kids could go into.  It was completely dark and they had to go through obstacles like climbing nets, going down slides, climbing ladders, etc.  They had a great time as we could hear them laughing in there while we waited outside.  We were so busy that we didn't even take any pictures!

We ventured outside when it stopped raining and there was a little town to walk through.  We stopped in an old schoolhouse and Danika said that she wished there was a camp she could go to where you had to live like in the olden days.

After that we hopped back on the bus and headed home.  We stopped at the store to get some more food and try to find a detailed city map of Auckland as the tourist information didn't have one.  We also found out that we need a transformer for our electrical needs.  We have adapters, but need to transform the voltage from local 240 volts to U.S. 110 volts... We still haven't been able to find a map or transformer anywhere so we came back to the apartment empty handed. We took another picture of the Skytower on the way back as it seemed more colorful today...

David is heading over to the conference, which is at the business school at the University of Auckland, about 12 minutes walk from our hotel, so we are just staying in and relaxing as we did quite a bit of walking today.  I am sitting here with the doors wide open letting in all the fresh air.  It is till raining and quite windy, but lovely nonetheless.  The bus driver today told us that it is highly unusual to have this sort of weather this time of year as it is usually hot and sunny.  That made me a little sad, but I have to say, we really had a marvelous day anyway!  The kids love having their own bedroom...

The kids and I are having leftover (from Raviz) indian curry for dinner, which makes me very happy, YUM!  This home restaurant has the best view - here is the night view from the balcony!