Despite adjusting for the time difference, everyone looked very chipper and eager to explore this morning. The group scattered in many different directions for many different activities: shopping at the craft-oriented Victoria Street Market, learning about the local sea life at Kelly Tarlton’s aquarium where fish and other sea creatures swim around and above you outside a Perspex (Plexiglass) tunnel, riding the ferry across the harbour to picturesque Devonport one the area’s oldest settlements, or riding to the top of the Sky City tower—the tallest building in the southern hemisphere. Alas, no one from our group was eager to make the controlled jump from the top of the Sky Tower but we contented ourselves with watching others make the leap, wailing and screaming as they did so.

This evening, we gathered again to enjoy a fabulous welcome dinner at an Auckland harbour-side restaurant. The menu featured locally grown and harvested seafood.