Our yellow van pulled up around 8:45 and there were three other people on the same tour, Dave, Vanessa, her son Sebastian, us and the driver/tour guide Mike.
Mike had a whole day planned for us today in spite of the constant drizzle. It seems we ended the trip with a solid week of rain ahead of us, bummer.
But Mike did not disappoint and everyone on board was up for the soggy challenge.
We visited the glass houses that had beautiful flowers and plants inside. Mike took us to a volcano where we had to hike in the rain to the top and get an up high view of the Auckland skyline, including the iconic space needle.
We stopped at a high hill where in the 1800’s they dug tunnels to house giant retracting guns for fear of Russian ships bombing the city (a false fear of course).
We did a wine tasting at a vineyard followed by lunch where we got to catch our breath, dry out a little, and get to know each other. Dave is on his honeymoon to his second wife. His first wife passed away a few years past and he found a new love. Very sweet. Vanessa and her son are from Mexico City and the 16 year old son is starting school in Auckland for three months so mom is spending some time here and then going home.
Mike was a salesman for 30 years and this is his retirement gig.
Mike dropped us all off in town at our prospective hotels mid afternoon. We're staying at the Auckland City Hotel and we rested and dried out a bit and then went downstairs for dinner then bed. This next week we will seek the sunshine somewhere on the North Island, we hope.
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