It's Only Monday and I'm Already Burnt

Auckland skyline as seen from the Bayswater ferry.

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Due to time constraints, and getting this out the door in a timely fashion, and to avoid a backlog, I am posting these without any real editing to the text or photos. If I had my druthers, I'd spend more time touching them up first. But here we are.

Today was our first real day here. Our flight from Brisbane to Auckland yesterday was delayed a bit, so by the time we got to AKL, it was closer to 18:00 local time. But then we had to make our way through immigration, collect luggage, and then proceed through customs and bio-screening to make sure we weren't bringing anything harmful into the country and local ecology, and they're pretty serious about it. Bringing in an undeclared banana could cost you $400.

After an hour-long taxi ride—or maybe it just felt like an hour after everything else—we finally made it to the hotel, checked in, showered and made our way outside around 20:45 just to stretch our legs a bit and see about some food. Other than a number of bars that clearly cater to the college kids, there wasn't much in our immediate surroundings, so just to make life easier, we had dinner at the hotel. And then pretty much passed out immediately after.

I slept about ten hours, which I clearly needed, but at some point we needed to face the day. So a hearty breakfast, also at the hotel, and off we went. At some point in the past, we were warned that the New Zealand sun hits harder. I did not heed this advice and am currently much redder than I should be. Not burnt per se, but my first order of business tomorrow is buying sunscreen and a hat.

At any rate, we wanted an easy day, so we just wandered around the city and visited a few parks, looked in a few stores, and had lunch in the Britomart area. It had previously popped up in some touristy search of the area, but I think its claim to fame is shopping, which is probably why I didn't remember it. I forget exactly where we ate, but it was British pub inspired. Surprisingly good food though.

We ventured back to the hotel to plan out our week, and after some back and forth figured out what we wanted to do—and what was actually realistic—and made our reservations. That out of the way, and around a little after four, we left for the evening to catch the Bayswater ferry across the bay to Takapuna, a suburb of Auckland, via a lovely stroll though the Bayswater neighbourhood. Why might we be venturing out to a suburb you ask? Because we decided to do an escape room whilst we were here. To no one's surprise, I'm sure. Not quite as good as lying in a crypt/morgue drawer, or crawling through a pitch black tunnel, like back in PDX, but it was still enjoyable.

Two costumed idiots in an old-timey black and white photo against a frontier town, in our victory pose. — Actual footage of our victory in solving the Murder on the Thames.

Two costumed idiots tightrope walking against the Auckland skyline. — Live camera caught us getting out of the escape room.

We caught the bus back to the ferry, and a quick ride across the bay and back to the hotel. Tomorrow is another day, and another adventure. This time we're going whale watching!