Mission Bay is located just a few km east of downtown Auckland. Accross the bay you can see Rangitoto, one of Auckland’s many vocalnic peaks.

We caught a bus from Britomart (transportation center) and were there in a few minutes. We spent the day on the beach, in the water, and eating fish and chips at one of the shops lining the beach. By we I mean Bethany, Julia, our friend Andy from Germany, our friend Rand from South Africa, some Frenchie, and myself.

The water seemed quite warm, considering we are just coming out of winter. I rescued a starfish that had washed onto some rocks.

We moved out of the Brown Kiwi and into our own apartment in downtown Auckland. The search for a place had been a bit difficult. Every apartment we looked at was extremely small and felt like a cubicle. At last we saw an ad for a roomy place in an old building downtown. We knew we wanted it imediately and were pleased to found out that the landlords found us to be suitable tenants.

We moved in yesterday, and I have spent this morning getting all the utilities turned on. We are located right accross the street from Albert Park and the art museum. We are also convieniently located near Britomart, the main transportation center, and Queen Street, the main street downtown. We are also near Auckland Domain, a beautiful park where we spent this afternoon.

Our building was built in the early 1900’s and was originally a YMCA building. It was converted into apartments in the early nineties. The building has four levels with a rooftop deck with saunda and grill. From the rooftop you can see the very top of the skytower, which is about two blocks away.

WE SHOULD HAVE AN INTERNET CONNECTION EARLY NEXT WEEK!

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.