Tuesday 8 March
Have you ever been desperate to find a parking space in a city, perhaps London? Well i have your answer, it’s simple, come to Auckland where there are more than a couple of parking areas on each block, literally multi stories everywhere. Anyway that aside this is today.
OK so we are staying in a hotel called Rendezvous Auckland, i may have mentioned the relationship between Rendezvous and my previous job. The booking system was created by this awful company called Rendezvous, and for that reason i don’t like Rendezvous although this hotel is lovely. The breakfast was good, typically Full English or Full Buffet as the Kiwi’s put it, Sausage, Bacon and anything else you want.
Well enough about that, you want to know (or maybe you are reading out of sufferance) what we did today. Chris as you know is a world class art buyer who will spend anything into the thousands for a single piece of art, so we had to visit this art shop for ourselves. Admittedly it has some lovely pieces and yes if i had the room i would have bought a few things, but i didn’t and therefore simply purchases a present form my dearest brother.
So this shop is located in Devon, well the port of Devon, aka Devonport which is simply across the harbour, i guess its about as far as Dover to Calais less around 98% of the distance. Its a small island, well it looked small, maybe massive, may not even be an island. Had a rather nice lunch in a restaurant serving the usual stuff, so went for a Caesar salad, very New Zealandish and very nice.
I realise this is all in the wrong order as the last thing i did was buy David’s present, had scoured the whole island for something cheap and failed. Had also climbed this extinct volcano thingy called Mount (google Mount devonport and you’ll find the name), it was rather steep but worth the stunning view of Auckland, although Tantine did not fancy the climb, photos will be uploaded in due course.
Well that kinda sums up the visit to Devonport, bar a quick walk to the other high point of the land. Perhaps i should have mentioned how we got there, simple answer a boat, slightly more complex answer is a catamaran. It only takes about 10 minutes from Auckland harbour so pretty good really.
Back to the hotel for a little swim, well 50 length and then off out for dinner. Dinner in the same area but this time at a restaurant called Foodstore, highly recommend the fish and chips, no grease whatsoever but the chips are a massive size and portion so hard to finish. To celebrate we started with some cocktails, i had a Pina Colada which was lovely and a good start to the meal. Now back in hotel room and surprisingly not feeling pissed, perhaps I am better at coping than that dear brother!
Tomorrow is the last full day so it may be busier than today, time will tell, until then it’s time for a cuppa.