View of Sky Tower from Mt. Eden

View of Waiheke Island

Bill & LeAnne at Mt. Eden

Day 14 (1/4): I awoke on our last day in New Zealand to the sound of rain. That might put a damper on our plans for today. We want to go to Mount Eden, a place we visited when we arrived, and then to the Auckland Zoo.

We've decided to go to the Auckland War Memorial Museum this morning to stay out of the rain. Bill's doing a good job of driving on the left and we're staying calm and righting our course when we get lost.

After an hour or two at the Museum, the weather has fined up. So, we're back to our original plan. We made a few wrong turns but finally made our way to the summit of Mount Eden. The views are glorious, quite a different view of the Auckland skyline. From here we can see the harbor, the Skytower, and the Museum. Now we're off to the zoo. The zoo is on the small side but the exhibits are mostly lovely third generation enclosures. It's nice to see a pride of lions in an open enclosure. I had hoped to see the elusive kiwi (the bird) at the zoo but two attempts at the darkened kiwi exhibit were unsuccessful. It's time to head to the airport and home.

At the airport we experienced the new and improved hassles of air travel, with the international bent thrown in. Time to settle back in my airplane seat for the twelve hour flight home.

Lions in the Auckland Zoo

Our "Ride" Back to the States