Day 9 - The Auckland Museum And Some Familiar Faces

I enjoyed my Cheerios in my apartment this morning, although just after finishing my breakfast got a bit of a shock when a man appeared at my sixth floor window cleaning the windows! I had a nicer surprise when the hotel then delivered a lovely card from Joanne, as well as some little chocolates and crisps.

My mission for the morning was then to go to the Auckland War Memorial Museum. It was a walk of a couple of miles, but allowed me to see Albert Park and the Auckland Domain. There was both nice scenery and a few geocaches to keep me entertained. I also enjoyed listening to one of my Blue Jays podcasts as I walked - I am still not over the World Series loss.

The War Memorial Museum is in the park area called the Domain which also contains a lovely cafe and the Winter Gardens. I visited both before going to the Museum.

There are a few parts of the Auckland Museum closed for renovation at the moment, but there was still a lot to see. I spent quite a lot of time in the ‘War and Remembrance’ section, where there were particularly interesting exhibitions on WWI and WWII.

There were lots of different exhibitions to enjoy. I got a bit freaked out by the models of various large birds in the ‘Origins’ section - I think I might have nightmares about the three metre tall Moa for a while. If that wasn’t scary enough, the exhibits about volcanoes weren’t hugely reassuring either!

After the museum, I caught a bus back to the centre and returned to my apartment. I received a message from Jane and Tony (my aunt and uncle for those not au fait with the Webb family tree) to say that they had arrived in Auckland. Their hotel is just a few hundred metres from me, so we arranged to go out to a nearby Italian restaurant for dinner. It was a very nommy meal and good to catch up on their time in Oz.

They then came back for tea/coffee/hot water at mine, where we made plans for tomorrow - another day of adventuring awaits!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 1 - It Starts……..

Image
Having been thinking and talking about this adventure for months, today rather crept up on me. As well being a little hurried in actually packing a rucksack for up to three months of travel (I had been organised with packing lists, just not the actually putting things in a bag bit), I was also a bit last minute in tying up loose ends at home, mainly the boring things, like sorting out my car tax that I realised expired whilst I am away. It was therefore also a bit of a late night doing the really important things, like finishing the hardback book I had no intention of travelling with, and downloading some shows to watch onto my Chromebook. But, after a bit of last minute re-packing (Do I really need that extra T-shirt? Probably not. Where did I put that charging cable?), my rucksack was ready to go, and I had sorted everything I needed to in my flat. I am pleased to report that I have not left anything in the fridge that is likely to be gross on my return. Then off through the rain to ...
Read more

Day 2 - Touristing it up in Brussels

Image
The Eurostar journey was pretty uneventful yesterday. Despite looking out of the window, I did not see any fish 🐠 as I crossed the Channel, and I made sure I was on the look-out for small boat crossings too.....  It was early evening when I arrived in Brussels. The metro system took me a few minutes (and one journey in the wrong direction) to figure out, but Google Maps did its thing and got me to my hotel safely. The hotel is near the Royal Galleries, close to the Grand Place, and it is pretty busy around as apparently this is a big weekend with Belgian National Day tomorrow.  An evening quest for food (success) was followed by a walk through said Royal Galleries and then a test of my photography skills at the Grand Place. It is, as the name suggests, pretty Grand. Pleasingly for me, there were lots of Geocaching AdLabs around for me to use to learn some history. My visit here was then followed up with some good wandering around, with the highlight undoubtedly the Brussels D...
Read more

Day 3 - Happy Belgian National Day!

Image
Yesterday evening was fairly quiet - a stroll to see Jeanneke Pis, all in the name of gender equality.... and then an ice-cream and soaking up some of the holiday vibes.  Today, in case you did not know, is Belgium's national day. I had read a bit about some celebration events, some of which I am hoping to see this evening, but I did not know that as I walked to find some breakfast this morning, within 100m of my hotel I would stumble upon the whole Belgian royal family arriving for the Te Deum mass at the St Michael and St Gudula Cathedral. Having previously sat opposite the Swedish royal family at a concert in Stockholm when visiting with Lizzy, I am starting to appreciate European royal families turning out for my visits.... Apparently it was King Philippe, Queen Mathilde, and their four children (Elisabeth, Eleonore, Gabriel and Emmanuel) who were there. You can read all about their outfits on the Daily Fail Online, if that's your thing.  Anyway, I enjoyed the experience, ...
Read more