Auckland July 10 - 14

July 10th

I arrived at Auckland Airport later than expected on the 10th of July (in New Zealand time) as my flight from Dallas, Texas to Brisbane, Australia had been delayed. My first flight from Cedar Rapids was good and I had no problems with motion sickness. On the way to Australia I got so sick they told me they may have to divert the flight as I was at great risk for dehydrating and then they upgraded me to the highest class flight where I got a chair that turned into a bed.
The flight from Brisbane to Syndey was slightly better, but I still felt miserable and spent the whole two hours with my head between my knees.
Finally I had the flight from Sydney to Auckland where I did not feel ill at all and I watched an in flight movie and then played solitaire. The solitaire was really difficult to play as the 737 had touch screens and they weren't very sensitive so you had to pretty much punch the screen if you wanted to move any cards. The 747 was better as everything was done with a remote. Which I had two of as I had a remote for my TV and a remote for my chair/bed/recliner.
Once I reached Auckland I went through customs for the third time (as I had to go through twice in Australia) and then I had to go find my bag and Chris. That was when I was informed that my bag was still in Sydney, and wouldn't be around til later that night. So then I found Chris (didn't recognize him at first and he startled me) without my bag and we gave the hotel address for my suitcase to be delivered to in the morning before going to the hotel and going to bed as I was tired.

July 11th

On the 11th we started the day by going to a muffin shop in the mall across from our hotel. One thing I noticed about Auckland is the doors to all the shops are left open all day. Even the mall is left wide open. The day was nice, high 50's low 60's and sunny. We ended up walking through the park all the way to the museum and back. That ended up being over a mile walk to the museum from the hotel but the views were nice once you got on the nature path. At the park I got my first sight of all sorts of native New Zealand plants and trees. We passed a duck pond on our way through there and then went up to the museum before going on to the botanical gardens where I got a sight of all kinds of neat flowers and some familiar flowers as well.

July 12th

Tuesday was Kelly Tarlton's Aquarium. We got started out late and didn't hit the aquarium until 11:30am so that was all we did that day. I saw all sorts of saltwater fish and went through a tunnel tank and then I had a look at both their King penguin and their Gentoo penguin colony which was probably my favorite part aside from the mega giant man eating lobsters. One lobster tried to climb through the tank wall and eat a little girl that was peering in and it was quite funny.

July 13th

We went to MOTAT which was the transport and technology museum in Auckland. We saw all sorts of mechanical things that Chris could explain better than I could but you can see how mechanical it was in the pictures I'll upload. After that we took a tram to the Auckland Zoo where I saw all sorts of animals that I have and haven't seen before. It was adorable when we went to the Red Panda exhibit as Chris knelt down to view one of the adorable creatures and it walked right up to him and put its paws up onto the glass. The other cool bit in the zoo was the macaw that kept saying "Hello" to everyone in a British accent. I also saw kiwis there and you could go into their conservation area and see the scientists working in the lab. It was boring in the lab that day as all they were doing were routine microscopic fecal exams.

July 14th

14th was our final day in Auckland and after an amazing all you can eat breakfast for an affordable price we went to the Sky Tower which is a tower consisting of 60 floors and happens to be the tallest tower in the Southern Hemisphere. We had a dessert in the cafe up there called a rocky road which consisted of a chocolate and walnut base that reminded me of coffee cake along with a marshmallow/raspberry top and then a lump of mousse and bits of dried strawberry on top of that.
That was about all for our last day, we were tired from our busy week and decided to take it easy.