Auckland

We had just a little bit planned for Auckland so it was easy to do everything we wanted. It ended up being a very fun day for all of us! First off, we got off the ship and walked to the sky tower. Our plans were to go to the Kelly Tarleton's Underwater World and Antarctic Encounter and I had read on their website that they ran a free shuttle which made two stops and one was the sky tower. The other stop was just listed as an address so I figured the sky tower would be easy to find and we wanted to see that too. We didn't go up in the tower because we were being cheap and had gone up to the top of Taipei 101 so when we got there we asked around until someone could tell us where the shuttle pick-up point was.

{Auckland Tower}

We waited for the shuttle for just a few minutes and then we saw the Shark Bus appear! We meant to get a picture but totally forgot but the bus had shark fins on top and a huge shark jaw at the front so it looked like a shark. When we got on we saw some people who were on our cruise already on the bus. Turns out the other pick-up point is at the port where we got off the ship. Oh well, we got to take the scenic route and get some exercise.

Kelly Tarleton's was very neat. There was section where we learned about penguins.

{Grace enjoyed the frigid water!}

{Brrrrr!!!}


They had snowcats which was like an enclosed kiddie roller coaster but it took you through the penguin habitat. The one in the pictures is just a display but looks like what we road in.

{snowcat}

{driving the snowcat}

There was a chalkboard with directions to draw a penguin.

Grace trying her hand at drawing a penguin... she decided it would be more fun to run off with the chalk and then we she had to leave it behind she got upset so a man that was passing by with his daughter gave her chocolate.

Then we went for a ride on the snowcat. I think this was the best part of the entire museum!

{Looking out the window at the penguins}

There was one area where we could watch them fly through water!

Then we moved on to the aquarium section. We are a bit spoiled since we have the world's second largest aquarium here and Kelly Tarleton's is MUCH smaller. So we didn't spend a lot of time in this part.

{Jaws}

After spending some time in the gift shop we decided to walk down to a popular area to find some lunch.

{leading the way}

The walk ended up being a LOT further than we had thought. But once we got there we found out why it was so popular.

{the beach and park}

There were several cafes and a few fast food restaurants. We decided to eat at a place called Oporo which we thought looked similar to Chick-fil-a. Let me just say that I don't think there is any comparison with Chick-fil-a! After lunch we headed across the street to find what we thought was the world famous ice cream the bus driver had mentioned. We later discovered that the world famous ice cream (which was also in the tourist book I had taken along from the library) was about a block down the road. The park made up for us not getting the right ice cream though!

After Grace had gone down the slide a LOT and played on the swing for a very long time (she kept telling me she wasn't ready to leave when I asked her if she was done) we walked down to the beach.

After walking around for a bit we decided it was time to start heading back to the ship. We wanted to stop at a supermarket on our way and I had asked a group of moms where would be best for us to stop and they had given us directions to one a couple blocks from the ship and told us where to find the bus that would pass right by. There is a reason we wanted to find a supermarket. We had taken Grace some snacks like graham crackers and her yogurt melts but we had also thought we would be able to take some things from the ship into port with us. But Australia and New Zealand had VERY strict quarantine laws and we were told we could not even take water unless it was in a brand new and sealed bottle. So we emptied Grace's snacks from the backpack before we headed of the ship in Bay of Islands. When the lady from customs saw us come by with Grace she asked if we had any food for the baby and we told her that we had left it all behind because they had been announcing all morning that nothing consumable was allowed to be taken off the ship. She told us that as long as we had packaged food items for Grace we would have no problem taking them into port with us. Well, graham crackers and yogurt melts don't stay in an unopened package very long so we decided to find some snacks for Grace. We had the bus driver drop us off at the Countdown and off we went. It was so nice to be in a real grocery store again! We found lots of little snacks for Grace, some bottled water for us (MUCH cheaper than the water they sold on the ship), some candy, and a new Little People train for Grace! We spent a long time in the store and walked up and down all of the aisles. Then we made the short walk to the ship. On the way back Grace fell asleep and we still had a couple of hours until we had to be on board so Dustin took everything we bought back to our cabin while I waited outside under a shade tree with Grace. We had to go through security and take Grace out of the stroller and we knew she needed her rest. We were even able to grab a couple of tacos from a Mexican cafe since we had been looking for a Mexican place for lunch and never found it but saw one right next to the ship!

Overall, Auckland was one of our favorite ports just because we never once rushed. We were able to let Grace enjoy the park and got some fresh ocean air!

Check back for more of our cruise adventures... our next stop is Tauranga!