so, i think the last time i blogged about nz was, um…day 8.  (which was probably several days AFTER day 8, but…let’s not focus on that.)

on day 18, my friend jeremy from college was going to be in town for a day (which was confirmed, oh, the day before…so i was scrambling to find a car!), so i picked him up fron the airport, and showed him a few of my favourite sites in my neighbourhood.  after, of course, we went back to my flat so he could nap on the couch.  those trans-pacific flights are pretty wretched.  however, it was raining, so we didn’t feel bad crashing (why do flights have to get in at 7am?).  AND…by the time sleeping beauty had awoken, the rain had stopped, and we had nothing but blue skies.

first stop was, of course, kebab stop…then we walked up mt eden.  auckland was built on auckland volcanic field…so, there are about a bajillion extinct volcanoes dotting the city.  they’re referred to as “domains”, which is essentially city/government property set aside to be a park in the city.  these parks are kind of hilarious, because they are frequently home to livestock.
yes, that is a cow, and that is the central business district skyline, a scant 2.5 kilometers away (about 1.5 miles)  (i had my camera set on taking black and white jpegs, which disappointed me when i got home, because this was way cooler in colour.)

it was incredibly windy up there that day!
i told jeremy this was going to be his cd cover…but, uh, he’s not really a musician. so.
after dinner we headed over to mission bay for overpriced swiss ice cream. mmmmm. we stopped and climbed up bastion point first…it’s got amazing views of the city and of rangitoto, and there’s a bunch of old bunkers up there that are fun to explore. it was getting ready to storm and in fact rained on us a bit when we were up there, but the colours were freaking incredible.

then, um…day 26 or so…i went w/ my former flatmate andy and his relatively new wife beks up to long bay.  it isn’t a particularly exciting beach, but it was a hot day, and we were all feeling fairly lethargic, so an outing of any kind was a victory, really.  it was nice to float around in the coolish water and relax.  i left my camera in the car (better in a locked “boot” than unattended w/ a beach towel, right?), so these are photos from the car ride home.

victoria park market was one of the VERY FIRST places someone took me my FIRST time in nz…way back in 2001. (gosh, nearly 8 years ago! crikey! (and yes…i say crikey when i’m here. and knackered and munted and aye and all sorts of other funny words.)) i liked the way the angle of the road positioned it in relation to the sky tower…basically the symbol of the auckland skyline.

that’s it for this post…next up will be my trip to the south island!