Sunlight through the window woke me with the thought that, Today is going to be a good day.
I couldn't have guessed how right that thought was.
I grabbed a lift into the city with BM again, she seems to be coping with having me around rather well. Considering she is about as much a morning person as I've always been in the past, and the fact that since I've got here I've needed no alarm to wake up, and am being extra chirpy first thing, I think she's coping quite well!
BM still finds it amusing (in between abusing other drivers regarding their abilities behind the wheel) that on the drive in, I'm going on about the view and what a lovely commute this is, but then this route is BMs, and many others, normality.
For me, it's still exciting and fresh, and I think it will be a long time before I lose that.
After being dropped off by BM so she can to go to work, my second port of call (Yes, coffee was the first again) was to the harbour side.
With the sun in a very blue sky again, and a light breeze, it was time to get on a boat and tour the harbour. I've always found being on or near water relaxing, which is strange considering after seeing Jaws when I was young, I didn't even like going in swimming pools. Especially not when my Sister would sneak up on me and start humming the Jaws music. It normally only took two or three notes of Duuurr Duh, Duuurr Duh, before I was out of the water scanning the pool for fins.
The harbour tour ticket also included a return to Devonport on the other side of the bay, so that would be my afternoon sorted as well.
The boat headed out into the harbour waters smoothly coasting along the almost flat water. As it's still Winter here, the boat was only about half full, so there was lots of room to move around and take in the beauty of the bay.
Auckland itself looked magnificent as we moved away from the city, even the docks and container ships looked great, although I will agree that I'm still in 'It's all new and shiny holiday mode' so that probably explains that part.
The boat took a slight detour once we were out in the bay proper, as the captain said there was a sighting of a Dolphin pod nearby. True to his word, and much to the excitement of all aboard, within minutes we were watching adult dolphins teaching the young how to coral a school of fish so they could be caught easily. It was fascinating and mesmerising to watch, but an absolute bugger to photograph. I have quite a few wonderful shots of splashes in water, and only the occasional fin.
I gave up and decided just to enjoy the spectacle, and keep the memories myself, rather than try and see it all through a viewfinder.
There were some Japanese tourists on board also, and I'd like to think it was just the beauty of the dolphins that was making them smile so much, but I'm sure I saw one of them licking their lips.
After watching the dolphins basically teaching their kids to play with their food, we headed to Rangitoto Island, which erupted from the sea around 600yrs ago, where some of the tourists would get off to have a good trek around, while the rest of us went on around the bay.
I'm sure i'll get myself over to Rangitoto for a wander soon.
From the island we skirted Devonport, and the New Zealand Naval docks. After having toured Portsmouth Naval docks back home, I was shocked at how small the whole Naval area was, and how few ships were moored up. Obviously some will be out at sea, but I'm not sure there was enough room to moor more than 2 or three other ships in there, if that.
Still, I guess that NZ hasn't pissed as many people off as the UK has over the years, and they obviously don't feel the need to stamp their authority all over the globe as we do.
We sailed under the harbour bridge, which is exactly what it says it is, and I'm sure it does a very good job of being a harbour bridge. Although it also does a very good job of being another structure for people to throw themselves of off attached to an elastic band, as we observed.
After waiting for Bungee person to be winched back up to collect his pats on the back, high fives, T-Shirt, Photo & Stomach back we headed back to the city. Again it looked resplendant in the winter sun, and again I took too many pictures of it that all look the same. I did at least manage to get a rather attractive Italian girl to get a snap of me with Auck in the background, and no, she wasn't available for dinner as she was meeting friends. She said it very nicely, but I could sense the real meaning of 'You're an old man, now go away or I shall punt you over the side!'
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