We packed up, got on the bus, and started on our trip North to Auckland. Before leaving town, we stopped at a church by the lake. The church, St. Faiths, is for the Maori. Its biggest claim to fame is a picture of Jesus dressed in a Maori warrior's outfit in a window. When you look out at it, it appears to be walking on the water of the lake.
After we saw that, we went to the Agrodome for the presentation. We saw the 19 different types of sheep here in New Zealand. We also saw a cow milking presentation and dogs that could corral sheep. Afterwards, we got to go buy.
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| Alex with a new friend |
Around 11:00 we got back on the bus to go north. Unfortunately, the caves at Waitimo were closed because of flooding. So we took a more direct route to Auckland. We stopped at Hamilton for lunch. We explored and went inside a mall to shop and pass time.
On the way to Auckland, the movie Whale Rider was put on for us to watch. It's a story set in today's times for the Maori. Given what we knew about the culture, we appreciated it much more. The students who had seen it before commented on how much more fuller it was and made better sense.
We got to Auckland and John gave us the city tour. We stopped at Mount Eden and got a 360° view of Auckland. We also got to see the sights from his perspective as someone who live there. It wasn't necessarily historic, but from a native's point of view. We said good bye to him and got into our rooms at the New President Hotel, which is close to the tower in downtown.
Stephanie at Mount Eden
We explored a bit and then went to the
waterfront restaurant close to one of the harbors. John had mentioned that there
was ¾ of a mile between harbors on each side of the island at the narrowest
point in Auckland. Once everyone was back, we spent a quiet evening in the hotel
doing laundry and getting ready for tomorrow.
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