Auckland

Our first full day in Auckland. It is the largest city in NZ, but a mere million in population. As you can see from my picture of one of the main beaches, it is bustling for a late Sat. morning :). The lack of population (four million total for the two islands with a total land mass about the size of Oregon) is one of the joys of NZ--traffic jams and pushing through crowds is a rare event. Anne and I toured the city on foot then went to a walk-through aquarium/penguin habitat and the Auckland museum and winter gardens conservatory. The second pic is Anne sitting on an eel sculpture in one of the parks and the 3rd of a lily pad pond in the conservatory. Those pads were as big as an I-Hop pancake! Eels hold a special place in the heart of Kiwis so they are represented in a lot of places. Tomorrow we are off on a plane flight to the other island to begin our first multi-sport tour. Cheers!