New Zealand Day 2

On our second day in NZ we were awake reasonably early, and hungry, so we strolled down to the muffin break for a little breakfast. It was just as tasty as the muffins I'd gotten the day before, and we enjoyed a leisurely morning watching everyday Aucklanders shuffle off to work. After breakfast it was off to the Auckland Zoo. We got there not long after opening but oddly enough still had to work around a crazy amount of stroller traffic and kids on field trips. We gave ourselves a full two hours, but felt pressured because we knew we had to be back downtown for our scenic harbour cruise. We had scoped out an international food court on the first day in our wanderings and decided to run by there for a quick bite to eat. We settled on two delicious dishes for take away, and rushed off to the dock to buy tickets. As soon as we walked away from the ticket stand, the skies opened up to rain on us. We managed to take some shelter near the ticket booth and cram down some really great Indian food including our first lamb dish of the trip.

We had high hopes for the Fullers Harbour Cruise, and it stopped raining but the day was kind of gray and the winds were whipping across the upper viewing deck. After our cruise we checked out a grocery store that we'd seen on the bus ride to Kelly Tarlton's, and grabbed a few provisions for our road trip. Once we realized it was open 24 hours we decided to make that the next day's first stop. We walked back to the hotel, dropped off our goodies, and then went to the i-site at the sky tower to book a room for the next night. We got what seemed like a good rate for a place that looked nice, but we'd just have to see when we got there. We found a great pub that somehow didn't make it in the journal, and made ourselves a booking at Midnight Express. We'd scoped the menu the night before and saw the huge lamb special sign outside that called to us like a siren song. We were not disappointed by the lamb dish, or the Mezze dish that I ordered (check out the menu, it's saliva inducing) or the tasty semi-local wine (a Stoneleigh Marlborough 2007 Pinot Noir). The meal got even better when I had my first flat white of the trip, with some Turkish Delight. Stuffed, it was back to the hotel to rest, we had a busy day three to look forward to, but I made a little time to snap some pictures of the sky tower.