Yesterday Julia, Beth, and I went with some friends to the harbor, which is the northern part of downtown Auckland. (I will put up a map of Auckland and its regions one of these days.) We walked west along the harbor until we found the Auckland Fish Market. We shopped for quite some time, checking out all the different types of fish on display. We learned that shark is called “yellow fish”.

We eventually decided on mussels, squid, baby octopus, and prawns (shrimp), and cooked them for dinner in a chili sauce over noodles. Very good.

For more on the Auckland Fish Market, click here.

An interesting note about time zones:
I have been quite confused about the time differences since leaving home. When we left the US, there was a 16 hour difference (8 hours earler in NZ and a day later) in time between EST and NZ time. While we were in Tahiti, NZ observed daylight savings time. Because it is spring in the southern hemisphere, NZ sprang forward an hour resulting in a 17 hour time difference (7 hours earlier in NZ and a day later).

Now the US has observed daylight savings time by falling backwards an hour because they are entering autumn. This results in an 18 hour time difference (only 6 hours earlier in NZ and a day later).

This was quite confusing to think about at first, but as it turns out NZ is 8 hours earlier (and a day later) when not observing daylight savings time, and only 6 hours earlier (and a day later) when both are observing DST. Or perhaps I have that backwards.

On the east side of central Auckland lies the University of Auckland. Between the university and downtown is Albert Park, shown here. The park is the site of one of Auckland’s earliest volcanoes, offering good views of the city and the harbor. The fountain in the picture is located on top of the hill/volcano along with a statue of Queen Victoria and a few cannons.

Here is another picture from One Tree Hill. This is the view from the top, looking towards downtown Auckland. You can see the Sky Tower on the left and one of the harbors on the right. We are in the middle.

On one of our first days in Auckland we visited One Tree Hill. It is situated convienently next to a computer repair shop in Royal Oak, a subdivision of Auckland, NZ. At the top is a monument wished to be built by Sir John Logan Campbell, out of his admiration for the Maori people and their culture.

One Tree Hill is a 182m high volcanic peak that overlooks Auckland city. From the top of the hill, one can see all of Auckland and both of Auckland’s harbors.

The good news is we made it to Auckland. The bad news is that today when I was finally downloading some baseball games to watch, and was about to update this site with a bunch of entries and photos, my laptop died. I have no idea why, but will be taking it to get serviced tomorrow.

More later, hopefully soon when the laptop gets fixed.