Auckland - June 29, 2013

I had a rough start to my day this morning.  I had dreams about going to my fourth grade teacher, Mr. Fornelious’ class with unfinished homework and then other dreams about Nazi occupation...It took me a few minutes to get started, but I did.

I did know that next door to my hotel is the LDS Family Services Building, but what I didn’t realize is that next door to that is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I was on online looking for the church this morning and looking up wards and their start times.  On-line it looked like there was a church just a few blocks down and to the left a little.   But when I started walking this afternoon, I realized that it was just next door and that you can see it from the window of my hotel room.  It sits a little ways back off the sidewalk so I just didn’t notice what kind of building it was.  It was open so I went inside, there was an activity going on.  I double checked with someone that the English congregation meets at 1PM and then went on my way.

I spent the afternoon in Devonport.  It is a suburb of Auckland that is directly across the bay from Downtown Auckland.  I think you could certainly drive to it but you would have to go around the bay and it is much closer and more direct to take the ferry, which I did.  It is known for it’s Victorian houses,

art shops and galleries and handmade chocolate shop.

I booked a tour again, which was helpful.  The tour took us to a place called North Head which has a lot of old guns and things that were set up to protect Auckland but were never used.  But it also has a fantastic view of the Hauraki Gulf and the City of Auckland.  The tour only stops there for 10 minutes but the guide gave us the option of staying for an hour and then joining the next tour.  I decided that 10 minutes wasn’t enough time to see what I wanted to see at North Head so opted to stay the hour and join up again with the next tour.  So I rambled around the top of this hill, which is actually a volcano, as are all the hills in Auckland. 

And at the end of the hour when I met up with Ray, the tour guide, again there was no one on the tour.  It was just Ray and me.  He told me some very interesting things, including all the changes and construction that has been going on recently on all of these Victorian homes.  Apparently it is illegal to tear down these homes and rebuild due to their historic nature.  If you own one of these homes you have to preserve them.  For example, Ray showed me a home that had recently finished burning off all the layers of paint so that they could get back to the original wood.  The homes are all made of Kauri wood, which is very soft and ideal for furniture, according to Ray.

Incidentally, Ray also told me about his family and his pre-retirement job as a bus driver.  He was also terribly concerned about how much it is going to cost to buy souvenirs for all my brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews and my parents and my grandpa.  I told him that I picked up a lot of really cool shells on the beach yesterday.  But since we are now BFF’s I decided I should have a picture with him.  He asked how I was going to manage that.  I told him it was really tricky, but that when you travel alone you get really good at the self-portrait.  (It must also be noted that my sister, Angela, taught me the art of self-portrait last summer in France).

After the tour was over, I walked around and looked in a few shops and then ate some dinner at a restaurant.  Then I took the ferry back to Auckland stopped at a couple of souvenir shops and a grocery store and came home.