Found On a Walk

As many of you know, one of my favorite hashtags is #foundonawalk because George and I love to walk everywhere. While we love hiking in nature, we also enjoy exploring new neighborhoods, towns and cities…we aren’t really picky as long as we can walk. Auckland has provided a variety of walking opportunities through the city, parks, suburban neighborhoods and the fun waterfront. We have been here a week and feel comfortable getting to favorite spots. We don’t usually sign up for tours, but prefer to discover things for ourselves which also gives us the flexibility to extend our explorations, hang out in a particularly interesting place, or cut things short to go back and take a nap. After years of working and raising our fabulous children with busy schedules, being unscheduled is one of our favorite luxuries.

The weather and long days here in New Zealand are affording us so many walking opportunities and yesterday we took a short ferry ride to Devonport to explore this small little suburb of Auckland. We met friendly and interesting people and got a little lost in a beautiful, peaceful neighborhood. Getting “lost” just means we get to explore more :-). We also climbed another of New Zealand’s inactive volcanoes and to get a view of the “baby” sleeping volcanic island, Rangitoto - it’s about 600 years old. You can hike on Rangitoto, but it is very exposed and you have to pack in all food and water. I got a little sunburned on our first hike and so we decided on a different, less strenuous type of exploration.

At the end of the day, after a nap and a game or two of backgammon, we walked back down to the waterfront to try out a restaurant that offered Lebanese food, among other delicious foods. The name of the place is Buffalo and we had a really great dinner there. I was tired and hungry and neglected to capture any pictures of the food - very out of character. The owner looked like he could be Lebanese and when George went to pay the bill he found out that the owner’s name is George and he and his family are from a suburb outside of Beirut! They moved to NZ in the 90s. We may go back tonight to try some other dishes and I’ll get pics if we do. We also met a very friendly New Zealand family that we talked with. They shared recommendations for visiting New Zealand and we offered recommendations for the delicious and authentic Lebanese food :-)

Here is a view of Auckland from the ferry

Finding yummy treats is one of our favorite things to do on a walk. While I played it safe with my delicious chocolate filled donut, George was more adventurous and requested a local favorite and was given a chocolate Lamington which was amazing! This is a sponge cake that is coated in chocolate and rolled in coconut. It can be different flavors or have jelly in it and is a bit jiggly and light. For those of you who also grew up on Hostess snacks - it reminded me of a Snowball…but much better.

We hiked up Mt. Victoria (not a very strenuous hike) and got a great view of Rangitoto Island

One of George’s skills is helping others to get great shots of their whole group/family.

We had another delicious meal at a cafe before visiting the chocolate shop and returning to the ferry. Sadly, the Fish Pie that George wanted to try was sold out, but his salmon was good and my seafood chowder was amazing!

After dinner we strolled around downtown Auckland and I tried capturing some pictures of pretty lights.

And some interesting metal artwork