Our 13-hour flight from San Francisco to Auckland was easier than we expected – it was long enough that Rich slept quite a bit and I “rested” a lot after watching The King’s Speech and Toy Story 3. We left Saturday evening and landed Monday morning, losing Sunday due to crossing the International Date Line. We'll get that day back when we fly home.

We took the airport bus to a stop in downtown Auckland, then walked to The Quadrant, which is a lovely hotel. In the public areas there is a courtyard with boulders surrounded by gravel raked into patterns and a reflecting pool with huge vases of flowers (very Japanese but on a huge scale).

We weren’t very sleepy when we got to the hotel, so off we went touristing.

We took the city bus to the Auckland Museum. Some of the exhibits there are clearly just things folks donated without relating to other things in their collection (one piece of Chihuly glass, for instance). The center dress in this display is a "cocktail dress."

We decided we were too tired to absorb much, so we'll come back tomorrow to look at the Maori exhibits.

Rich walked around the park outside the museum while I read. There is a lovely view of the Auckland harbor from the front door of museum.

When we took the city bus back to the transit center near our hotel, we walked over to the wharves and decided to take a random boat trip. So off we went to Devonport, just 10 minutes one way. I read on the beach while Rich explored Devenport. We had dinner at Mecca near the beach. The meals were beautifully presented, but we were so tired by then that even when we talked about taking a photo of our plates we didn't have the energy to do it. This is the skyline of Auckland seen from the ferry to Davenport.

Tuesday morning we headed back to the Auckland Museum. This time we were awake! Great rooms on both Maori culture and NZ wildlife.

This is the ice axe used by Sir Edmund Hillary when he and Tenzing Norgay climbed Mt. Everest in 1953.

Then we walked around the Winter Garden – the park and conservatory next to the museum.

That evening we had dinner at a random place near the medical school near the park. It was a very informal Turkish place. I had a wonderful plate with a variety of items – mushroom stuffed with cream cheese, marinated lamb, feta rolled in filo, and lots of other goodies.

Then home for an early bedtime because tomorrow we fly to Queenstown and begin our exploration of the South Island.