Posh Fush & Chups, Penguins & Walking in the rain.
After being dropped off by BM again (Woman deserves a medal!) and heading immediately to one of Auckland's many coffee shops, I headed up from the city centre on the long'ish' walk up to Newmarket. I say long'ish' as I started taking a direct street route, then decided to cut through the Auckland Domain, where the big museum is, as I thought it would be a nicer ramble than the same route as before.
I then found signs for a woodland walk around the bleeding great hill (volcano?) that the museum sits on. As it was a more direct line to Newmarket, it should be quicker than the half hour or forty minutes it took last time.
Err, no.
I didn't actually get lost, but I kept seeing other paths and thinking, that looks nice. I should know by now to not pay attention to what pops into my head. An hour and a half later, I made it to Newmarket, and a return visit to York St. Mechanics.
I wanted to drop in again, first of all because it's a cool place, but also to grab some extra photos before heading down to Wellington on Friday. It also seemed like a good chance to sample some of their scoff.
I am so glad I did.
Splendid light lunch of panfried & tempura fish, and some homemade chunky chips.
As before the staff were welcoming and chatty, and after polishing off an espresso or two I got some of the shots I wanted.
As there was a light drizzle in the air as I left, I thought an afternoon indoors would be a good idea, and I'd seen a couple of signs for an Aquarium and Arctic Adventure place, that seemed pretty close on the map.
A short while, a couple of wrong turns and about 8kms later, I paid my entrance money and went to sees fish, sharks and penguins in a huge Arctic wonderland.
As I entered, a hyperactive young staff member asked me to pose against a green screen for a couple of photos, and then asked if I could act terrified, as if a shark were attacking me.
Being the camera shy wallflower that I am, within a second I struck a pose and screamed in terror.
I don't think she was expecting the scream, and to be honest, I don't think I was either....
I was still allowed in.
The site I think is more geared towards teaching kids, which is how it should be. Saying that, I did learn a fair bit while I was there.
Such as the young English couple stood near me in the Captain Scotts Arctic hut recreation, who kept asking each other who was this Scott fella, and why there was a hut like his in an aquarium..
Oh, look, he must have been an artist.
Oh look, he must of liked cold places (I promise you, one of them said that).
Do you think he was famous? and so on....
I decided to keep very quiet in case anybody thought I was with them, and also because I liked reading the many, many boards explaining about Captain Robert Falcon Scott, and Roald Amundsens race to the South Pole.
Yes, I did pick up some literature, as I know what my memories like, and how easily distracted I can be.
As I am right now, thinking how cool 'Falcon' is for a middle name!!
From there it was through the fish tanks, and the penguin area. In defence of the attraction, there were signs up to explain that the penguin enclosure was temporary while the usual one was being expanded. I couldn't help thinking the temporary enclosure made it look like you'd just opened a big chest freezer, to find about 40 penguins waddling around instead of the bag of peas you were looking for.
For all I know, some of you may have had that very experience. If so, I'd suggest laying off the catnip.
I walked into the next room, past some salivating Japanese tourists....
SHARKS! Alright, not great white in size, so.... 'sharks'. Sleek, beautiful and some with a noticeable overbite, killing machines. Some of the smaller ones were kind of sweet, as long as they were behind a couple of inches of curved perspex. Small or not I wouldn't want one in my bathtub.
And that was about it, apart from the Seahorses, they were brilliant and daft and reminded me that if there is a God, she's probably got a sense of humour. After seeing the pufferfish, and some of the other uglies in there, I know she has.
I stopped trying to make the pufferfish jump, and 'puff' after a stern look from a staff member, and so I slunk towards the exit where the same bouncy staff member from the way in accosted me and asked if I wanted to buy the pictures she'd taken of me. I was tempted, as there was me underwater, there was me being chased by a shark, there was me... you get the idea.
She offered the pictures as a deluxe set, with Fridge Magnet 'me', sticker 'me', DVD 'me', AND.... Keyring 'me', all for the exceptionally good price of $40.
I nearly went Scottish on her, but kindly declined.
A decision I started to regret on the walk back. $40 is only about £20.... for a KEYRING & FRIDGE MAGNET ME!!!! Dammit!!!
Yes, I walked back as well, another 6kms. Look, I know to any of you that exercise on a regular basis, 14kms with a break to look at fish isn't that much, but this is me.
The walk back was because I couldn't be bothered to wait 50 minutes for the free bus back, and it seemed a nice drizzle for walking in.
The walk back followed the seafront all the way back into the city, and was windy, wet, long and actually, really really refreshing.
Back at the Fortress, and trying to sort my packing for Fridays jaunt to Windy Wellington. At least there's less alcohol to pack now, or none, if I'm being accurate.
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