Day 16 - Auckland

What a different start to the day after the last two weeks! I woke up and no one was in my room! I took my time getting dressed and then went up stairs to have brekky with Bethany. I had some gluten free muesli which was basically rice pops and cornflakes in a cereal together. Then she gave me lots of food to take on my walk so I took a banana muffin, a carrot, a muesli bar and 2 cheese, cucumber, lettuce and aoli sandwiches.
Bethany had to leave for work so she left around 8 and I helped pack last night's present packing work in her car. Then I finished getting ready and walked to the bus!
It was so empty and such quick traffic for peak hour. It was a dream! I got off in the city and walked through Victoria Park, then to the skytower to give it a nod and see what's at the bottom (not a shopping centre!) And then walked to Albert Park before heading to the wharf. I ate my morning tea and then found the pier I needed (13!) And lined up in the ferry queue. A few people didn't realise that you couldn't use the public transport card to get on this ferry and had to run back and buy a ticket. I hopped on the ferry and sat next to a lady called Kathy from Idaho and we chatted about what walks we might do, and then about where we from and what we'd done in the south island for the last two weeks. It was nice and really easy! But then I didn't know what the etiquette was for doing the walk together up to the summit, so when we got off we kept leap frogging each other. Eventually I ended up in front but walking on my own and Kathy met an American born Indian boy called Josh. I listened to them chat to each other for a while and Kathy shared about her two adopted Korean children who came along before her own biological daughter after 17 years. She's now divorced from that husband and travelling the world as she nears retirement. He is back at school in Berkley in California doing finance. Eventually at a junction where the road split off to the caves I caught up to them, after they overtook me at a lookout and we all ended up finishing the walk together. Neither of them had much to say about me a Christian so I just kept that light.
We got to summit, walked around the crater, ate some snacks, and then Josh and I headed down the same way so we could get to some lava caves while Kathy went down a different route because she was going on a different ferry home. We chatted mostly about politics and the state of America and the uselessness of still using fahreinheit. It was simply chat. We got to the caves but they were a bit underwhelming. They weren't big enough to get through so I crawled as far as I could, took a photo, and then we walked the rest of the way down about Australian and New Zealand accents, Australian wildlife and media.
Once we got to the bottom we found somewhere nice to sit and I ate my sandwiches while Josh ate a protein bar, I guess he only had time to quickly get to the shops from the airport.
Then we met Kathy at the bottom wild made it back from a walk and we chatted until our ferry came. On the ferry Josh managed to find a couple who lived in the same city as him, super small world. We said goodbye at the wharf when the ferry arrived and I went to the gift store to stock up on postcards! Then I caught the bus home, walked on Sylvia road, and got back to the house. After calling the horse place to pay my deposit, and then cancelling my booking for Friday night, I had a shower and then chopped up the veggies for tonight's dinner, cucumber and tomato, to go with a salad. Then I wanted for Bethany to get home and we unpacked her car of all the end of year gifts she got from school and then drove back into the city. Back to Albert Park! I met her friend Sarah there who's a pharmacist and we had a picnic dinner in the park which was nice. Then they left to go to Handel's Messiah at the town hall and I caught the bus back. I pulled in all my clean washing and repacked my suitcase listening to the end of Harry Potter 6 at last!Read more