Last Day
Our last day in Auckland is coming to a close. Our day started off pretty lazily with a nice family breakfast around Lynette's table. We were all a little groggy from the night before (hey - we're in our thirties now, we don't party like we used to!).
Dave, Mark, Nadine & Kate took off to a local Rugby store for last minute shirt shopping. Kate & Mark returned with some great memento shirts, and David returned with a new wardrobe! Kristin, Josh and I lounged around the house - mesmerized by the books we've been reading (Josh is reading Intimacy by Henri JM Nouwen, Kristin is reading The Rescue by Nicholas Sparks and I'm re-reading parts of Through Painted Deserts by Donald Miller). When the gang returned, Kate & I holed up in my room for some prayer time, and the rest of the gang gathered in the lounge to figure out the day.
We decided that Blackwater Rafting will have to take place during our next adventure to the South Pacific - it was just too much to fit into our last day. Kate, Josh, Jacinda, Mark and Dave opted to go kayaking. Nadine, Kristin and I opted for a ferry ride on the ocean (great pics and all). Jacinda is an outdoors / survival expert and knows all of the good places around here for getting fun out of nature!
I'll have to have Dave fill you in on the kayaking adventures b/c I wasn't there. I can tell you, however, about our day on the ferry. It was very funny b/c after all the build-up of getting to the ferry and talking about the ferry and dreaming about the photo ops from the ferry - we found out that the ferry ride was only 12 minutes!!! We couldn't stop laughing about that as we lunched at Calypso Cafe and walked the streets of downtown Devonport. After lunch, we made a mad-dash for the ferry, only to see it sail away without us. Since we now knew that it ran every fifteen minutes, we just made ourselves comfy in the ferry terminal and waited for the next one. HAH! Even though we only spent twenty-four minutes on the ocean, it was still very fun.
After our ride was over, we stopped off at the grocery store so I could pick up some New Zealand favorites to bring back to the office and my home (I'm so addicted to their local soda "Sweet As L & P" that I picked up a 2 liter of the stuff!!!). Then, we met back up with the kayaking gang, finished up our packing and headed to the beach for some NZ fish & chips.
OH MY WORD! It was such a different experience than eating fish & chips in America. First of all, the fish is "crumbed", not breaded. It is served wrapped in newspaper, as opposed to a basket or any other kind of wrapping. The Sleemans have a tradition - buy fish & chips and eat it on the beach. We ate so well on our last evening in Auckland - crumbed fish, chips (both potato and kumera), donuts, pineapple rings and chip butty sandwiches. Chip butty's are an interesting idea - you take a piece of white bread, butter it, throw some chips on there and then smother it in ketchup. It's basically the best way to get ALL your carbs for one day in ONE serving. I'm not ashamed - I tried it. It was delicious!
After dinner, we wrapped up with some pics on the beach. It was quite sad really - I shed a tear or two. Once at the airport, we had quite a rigamarole to leave the country. First, there was a flight check-in, then there was Customs, then they charge you a departure tax. First country I've ever been to that has charged me to leave it! The Sleemans were troopers, hanging with us until we went through security to get to our gate. Finally, we bid farewell to Nadine & her family... and headed to our gate. Thank you so much, Sleemans, for making us feel at home so far away from ours!
We can't believe it's over! We've done so much, but missed so much along the way as well.... which is alright by me... just more excuses to come back again, again and again!
Dave, Mark, Nadine & Kate took off to a local Rugby store for last minute shirt shopping. Kate & Mark returned with some great memento shirts, and David returned with a new wardrobe! Kristin, Josh and I lounged around the house - mesmerized by the books we've been reading (Josh is reading Intimacy by Henri JM Nouwen, Kristin is reading The Rescue by Nicholas Sparks and I'm re-reading parts of Through Painted Deserts by Donald Miller). When the gang returned, Kate & I holed up in my room for some prayer time, and the rest of the gang gathered in the lounge to figure out the day.
We decided that Blackwater Rafting will have to take place during our next adventure to the South Pacific - it was just too much to fit into our last day. Kate, Josh, Jacinda, Mark and Dave opted to go kayaking. Nadine, Kristin and I opted for a ferry ride on the ocean (great pics and all). Jacinda is an outdoors / survival expert and knows all of the good places around here for getting fun out of nature!
I'll have to have Dave fill you in on the kayaking adventures b/c I wasn't there. I can tell you, however, about our day on the ferry. It was very funny b/c after all the build-up of getting to the ferry and talking about the ferry and dreaming about the photo ops from the ferry - we found out that the ferry ride was only 12 minutes!!! We couldn't stop laughing about that as we lunched at Calypso Cafe and walked the streets of downtown Devonport. After lunch, we made a mad-dash for the ferry, only to see it sail away without us. Since we now knew that it ran every fifteen minutes, we just made ourselves comfy in the ferry terminal and waited for the next one. HAH! Even though we only spent twenty-four minutes on the ocean, it was still very fun.
After our ride was over, we stopped off at the grocery store so I could pick up some New Zealand favorites to bring back to the office and my home (I'm so addicted to their local soda "Sweet As L & P" that I picked up a 2 liter of the stuff!!!). Then, we met back up with the kayaking gang, finished up our packing and headed to the beach for some NZ fish & chips.
OH MY WORD! It was such a different experience than eating fish & chips in America. First of all, the fish is "crumbed", not breaded. It is served wrapped in newspaper, as opposed to a basket or any other kind of wrapping. The Sleemans have a tradition - buy fish & chips and eat it on the beach. We ate so well on our last evening in Auckland - crumbed fish, chips (both potato and kumera), donuts, pineapple rings and chip butty sandwiches. Chip butty's are an interesting idea - you take a piece of white bread, butter it, throw some chips on there and then smother it in ketchup. It's basically the best way to get ALL your carbs for one day in ONE serving. I'm not ashamed - I tried it. It was delicious!
After dinner, we wrapped up with some pics on the beach. It was quite sad really - I shed a tear or two. Once at the airport, we had quite a rigamarole to leave the country. First, there was a flight check-in, then there was Customs, then they charge you a departure tax. First country I've ever been to that has charged me to leave it! The Sleemans were troopers, hanging with us until we went through security to get to our gate. Finally, we bid farewell to Nadine & her family... and headed to our gate. Thank you so much, Sleemans, for making us feel at home so far away from ours!We can't believe it's over! We've done so much, but missed so much along the way as well.... which is alright by me... just more excuses to come back again, again and again!
posted by KM @ 6:05 AM
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