Auckland
Auckland, New Zealand - Day 5
The rain broke in the morning, and we welcomed back the sun. Even with the good fortune in weather, Katie and I were still sad to say goodbye to our Hamilton home. It was actually my first AirBnB ever, State side or otherwise, and it was a great experience. The location was an amazing central hub for all our previous activities.
With a packed car, we made our way back North to Auckland where there's skyscrapers, loads of pedestrians, construction, and lots of traffic. As big cities go, this one is clean and safe. Katie and I spent the afternoon wandering around and found Auckland University and an adjacent park, the harbor, and an art gallery. My favorite pieces at the gallery were these portraits painted in the late 1800's of elderly Maory people. One in particular was of a man that may of been in his 80's, a wrinkled face and white hair as could be expected, but with traditional Maory facial tattoos. He looked sad and poor, and I found that kind of heartbreaking. I read into it that these may of been the last people to have lived in the Maory lifestyle, but not sure if that was the actual case or not.
As to be expected in a big city, there are restaurants everywhere. For lunch, Katie and I found this place called "Elliot Stables," which was a little area that had maybe twenty little restaurants on the edge and shared a dinning area. Each establishment was a different kind of food and had their area decorated to their own theme. It was pretty cool and had a ton of choices. Katie went for chicken skewers and I had an Indian tandori burger. It was an interesting fusion that I rather enjoyed. For dinner we had a delicious meal of Chinese food. One thing about New Zealand that Katie and I picked up on pretty early on, was how from our point of view, New Zealand seemed so much more seamlessly multi-cultural than the US. That shows in the fantastic mix of ethnic cuisine and also the diversity of the people.
