Auckland, New Zealand

After crossing the great Pacific Ocean for many, many days we finally made it to a big city. I have always wanted to visit New Zealand since hearing stories of how awesome it was. We docked mid-morning and joined a group that was going to go sailing around the harbor on an America’s Cup yacht. It was a pretty picture perfect day to go sailing. These yachts went fast, and were very agile. They made everyone on the yacht help raise the sails and then you could get a chance to steer it around for a bit. I jumped on at one point to steer this several million dollar boat with no experience…For some reason they really let me take a long joy ride and kept on telling me to keep going until we got closer to the docks. Super fun, but slightly stressful. We worked up quite the appetite after sailing around so headed straight to a restaurant to grab some steamed mussels which are know to be delicious in New Zealand, which they were. We had a few days in Auckland so we went out and saw as much of the city as possible by foot. Lou and I stumbled across a great little coffee shop while dodging out on some rain that also sold meat pies. This was my first really good coffee in a long time and it was much needed. After the storm passed we headed up to Mt. Eden, and extinct volcano, to get a great view of the city as the sun set. Later that evening we met up with some friends for a delicious dinner under the Auckland Sky Tower. Our last day there I headed out with a group to check out the west side of the Island to see some nature. We wandered a little on the Hillary Trail to see a waterfall then spent some time on the black sand of Piha beach. Would love to get back out to Auckland some day to get some outdoor activities in.

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