Auckland - Reunion with a friend

When Terry and I got back from Middle-Earth I went to see Selena Sun at her university. Do you remember her? She is the Chinese girl who sat next to me in the Burnside High School orchestra. I was really happy to see her again. It's amazing how some friendships last 5 years without every seeing each other yet when you finally meet again it's as if no time has passed at all!
After a quick dinner we drove to the Star Dome Observatory, a little outside the city. First we had booked a little show where we were told all about planets and star pictures. Although it was really interesting I might have fallen asleep in between for I was so tired and I hadn't yet allowed myself to sleep off the jet-lag... Afterwards we went out into the bitter cold night to see Jupiter and Neptune through the telescopes before heading back to her place where I would stay for the next 2 nights.

The next day I had to get up at 7 to find another carpark. It's really difficult and expensive in the city! Probably better to get your car afterwards...
After a quiet morning while Selena had her classes we joined for lunch at the hall. In the afternoon we went ice-skating at the campus (it was Orientation Week) but it felt like we were skating on stone so it wasn't really fun. To cheer us up we got some rolled ice-cream, really cool! At 5pm we went to the Skytower Observation Deck to watch the sunset. It was too cloudy though so we could only see the lights of the city slowly starting to glow.

Before I left Auckland to continue my travels we decided to visit Kelly Tarlton's Sea Life Aquarium. It was nice  and we also got to watch the sting ray and penguin feedings. Still it was very much like the Antarctic Centre in Christchurch so nothing special.

When we got back to the car we had another little adventure: the battery had died. Luckily Selena was AA member so we could call them and they fixed it for us without costs. We were told that the battery was just too old and because it hadn't been my fault we could drive back to Omega Rentals and I got another one. Good thing that I was still in Auckland though! It worried me a little that something like that may happen again but I must say, the customer service was great for I get a new one almost immediately. Now I was ready for my road trip so that afternoon I headed up north along a beautiful road to the Bay Adventurer Backpackers in Paihia.