Thursday, June 21, 2007

Extra Bits

This entry is full of some extra bits of Auckland. I was looking back at some of the picture we took from while we were just strolling through the city, and I though I would share.

Auckland is dotted by a ton of parks and monuments. We have been to a fair number of them, but we still have our work cut out for us if we want to visit all of them. To the right is Albert park which is oriented in the downtown area. We came across this one as we were heading to the Sky Tower. Below are pictures of Cornwall Park and the obelisk that adorns the peak of the extinct volcano cap in the park. The view from the top is amazing on a clear day.

One of the largest Auckland that houses the city museum is Auckland Auckland Domain. It is about 5 minutes walk from Denise's workplace, and I have been down there a several times to play soccer. We spend an afternoon exploring the domain snapping these pictures as we went.








The greenhouse area had a reflecting pool which was kind of cool.


I think the first picture we sent out to everyone was of Denise and I standing atop a hill in the Auckland Domain with the Sky Tower in the background. You can see the tower from almost any point in the city which make it good as a reference point when you get lost driving through town. We get lost pretty often, so making good use of the Sky tower as a homing beacon. Did I tell you you can go up the tower to an observation deck? You get an excellent view of the city.



The observation tower has a glass floor you can stand on. Instantly you feel you heart rate climb as you ponder whether or not the glass will break under your feet. Denise was reluctant to stand on it even though there was a disclaimer informing you that the glass was stronger than concrete. Did I mention you can jump off the top of the Sky tower? Well, this crazy fool isn't me, but I seriously considered it. It was tempting to do if you like to have the whits scared out of you.

We have also made a few friends. We had them over for dinner the other night. We also all gathered to go to the Lion Brewery tour in New Market.














The tour was pretty cool; although, we were unable to get to the actual brew house, and the packaging area was not running at the time. Oh well, the host of the tour made it more than worth while. To top that, you get to poor your own pints at the end of the tour. Awesome! The bar inside the brewery is picture on the right. It was pretty sweet with the old copper kettles in there.
The last picture are just to make everyone jealous. These are the Sunrises we have seen from our little balcony/deck. It is pretty nice to wake up to that.

The last two are the sunset in Auckland City. It looked like the Sky was on fire.

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