Sunday, February 9

This morning was a walking tour of Auckland with our site coordinator, Len. We walked down past the Britomart Building. Where we were walking was all on reclaimed land! Britomart was named after a Royal Navy gunship, the HMS Britomart.

During our visit, a lot of construction for redevelopment of the city center was happening, there were many orange cones! The city is also getting ready for their hosting of the America’s Cup next year.

Our walk included the Ferry Building (1910) which was once used for the crossing of the Harbour. We walked past the Maritime museum and as far as the fish market. We saw some fish being sold that we’d never seen before.

After our morning walk we had morning tea and an introductory meeting. It was a welcome by Robbie our group leader. An interesting quote was that they are “turning tourists into travelers.”  It was explained that we will see and learn about the people, land, flora, fauna, and the icons of the places we visit.

After lunch, Len, our site coordinator lead us on a walking field trip through central Auckland. We walked up Queen St. past the art gallery, Albert Park and the university.  In the park he pointed out the pōhutukawa or New Zealand Christmas tree.

We enjoyed some free time after our walk in the city.  Dinner was going to be in Davenport at the Esplanade Hotel and we took a ferry to get there and to get back.

After dinner we walked around the island.  It was up and down hills!  On our ferry ride back we watched the sunset and then the moon begin to rise!