Slightly less weary, we had breakfast in our studio hotel room and headed down to Queen's Wharf to take a ferry over to Devonport across the bay. It has been somewhat cloudy most of the time we've been here, which is fine--when the sun comes out, it's like being gently steam baked--so you'll see most of the pictures show overcast skies. We hiked along the waterfront to the Devonport Naval Museum and then back into town to buy a genuine souvenir hat for Hal and have a yummy lunch at an outdoor restaurant on Victoria Street. Great for people watching; Hal had a lamb burger and I had a fish pie. Like Auckland, the population is very diverse. We stopped in a pharmacy where the pharmacist was originally from Egypt and the tech from Dubai. There is an intriguing mix of English and Maori in the language, place names, and population. The trees are amazing and you can see how Peter Jackson got his inspiration for the Ents in the LOTR trilogy. Wandered around town some more and then took the ferry back to Auckland. Walked up to the car hire office to double check our reservation for the following day, and then down through Albert Park to the Auckland Art Gallery...did I mention that Auckland is hilly? --not too surprising since it is built on almost 50 volcanos! There was the most amazing giant "sculpture" of inflatable flowers hanging in the main atrium that alternately in/deflated--hard to describe but see pic below. We arrived only 40 minutes before closing so saw a fraction of the collection, but there was no admission charge at that point, so it was good! Stopped for a local brew at a pub, watched the people go by, found a regular grocery store for some supplies, and headed back to our room to finish off the lamb curry and mango chicken from the night before.
