Continuing my visit to Auckland meant that I got to see a lot of civic sculpture. There was a lot of wonderful stuff on offer and I appreciated all of it.
This is really on the way to visit some friends in the country, but I saw it again on the way to Rotorua too. It is a very nice countryside Marai along one of the highways.
From the top of one dead volcano, looking at another dead volcano. Auckland is built on volcanoes and the big bay it is on is probably a caldera of an enormous one.
The inside of an old volcano. The rings are from the cattle that were used as lawnmowers till one attacked a person and they banned them.
A very nice view of suburban Auckland.
The downtown.
We took a ferry out to Waiheke Island, an enclave of the rich. The one half of the island is for housing and the other half is for viniculture and agriculture. Very strictly preserved with native plants regenerated to be as it once was. Other than the grapes and other stuff we humans like to eat!
The ever present flax plant. Used for weaving and papers.
The beautiful and strange light of daytime, that seemingly only the camera sees this way. I love it!
A nice cafe where we had a coffee during a little bus tour. We later had lunch of fish and Kumera (sweet potato) chips that some gulls insisted on sharing with us (a la Hitchcock style).
The interior of the local film theatre. This is the way to watch a movie! There was a coffee counter at the back of the theater, with nibbles, baking and sandwiches.
Back in Auckland, I continued to enjoy the green spaces of this city.
The colour too!
We went to Terry Tarlton's aquarium. It is built using the old sanitation storage tanks where effluence was once ditched into the sea. What a great reuse of this old facility. There were penguins, sharks, stingrays you could go and play with and a huge assortment of other interesting sights.
We were riding in a little train that went around the penguin colony. They kept the room quite cold for the comfort of the animals.
Just as we were about to go out through the doors, a huge killer whale pops up RIGHT beside the train car. It worked at getting the screams out of all of us!
This is one of the stingrays resting.
A giant preserved squid. My sister's back is used for scale.
This is a turtle that was recovering from an injury and was being returned to the sea when it was well.
This turtle was not so well and just preserved forever in acrylic.
The inside of the underwater tunnel experience. The walls of glass are three inches thick.
Displays of corals were wonderful. I even got to see seahorses!
One day, we went to a market and saw these yams. The colour was so fantastic.
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