— That’s one small step for man (Bob) . . . or else he’d leave Beth behind.
After a few days of resting the foot, which coincided with some rainy days, we were ready to head out for a bit. We had already purchased tickets to a Mandela exhibit at the Mount Eden stadium for the evening of June 18. The exhibit has been in Auckland since the end of April, but June 18 would have been his birthday, so they were offering reduced-fare prices as there would be food trucks available as well. Bob discovered this as he was researching the event. We were at the house until about 4, so it was a relatively short time out with the boot as we toured the exhibit. In case it is touring and comes to your area, we recommend it. The only downside was no photos allowed.
We went a little early so I wouldn’t slow people down walking to the stadium. We arrived about 4:45, and they let us in even though the reduced price admission was only to start at 5:00.
Side Note: We have since learned through the paper that due to negotiations with the local community, already in existence when the stadium was built, that the venue is limited to 36 events per year, only 6 of which can be concerts, and no Sunday night events are allowed. This is causing a bit of an issue for an upcoming cricket match with India, as ideally (for tv coverage in India) the match would be held at night on the Sunday scheduled.
After our Thursday night out and another rainy day in, we headed downtown to catch a ferry to Birkenhead which is on the other side of the harbor but west of Devonport. They are not served by the same ferry, at least not on weekends, so when we arrived we found the next ferry to Birkenhead would not be for another 70 minutes. By this time it was raining again, so we hatched a Plan B. Bob had been wanting to check out the Auckland fish market, so we headed in that direction. It ended up being a lovely walk and we got to see a part of the harbor area that we hadn’t yet explored and much of which hadn’t been developed when we visited in 2015.
After walking around the Wynyard Quarter area, we walked back into the CBD to check-out the Auckland Library which we hadn’t yet visited. We weren’t much impressed with the library but did fine other cool buildings.
From downtown, we took the rail to the Mount Eden stop to walk Ponsonby Street, the heart of the Ponsonby ‘hood known for its food and fashion.
Can you tell that Auckland is growing?
On Sunday, we did a quick visit to Albert Park near the Art Gallery before picking up a rental car for a home-owner encouraged trip north of Auckland. More on that later. We had a picnic in the park and people and bird watched.
Peckish Travels 