NZ: Day 18
Drove back down to Auckland. First stop was the aquarium, where finding parking was a clusterfuck. But we managed to get a parking space and went to Jack Tarley’s Ocean Adventure or whatever it is called. We got to see baby penguins, which were very cool, and walked through their clear acrylic tanks which had fish, sharks, and rays swimming all around you. There was also a recreation of Scott’s South Pole camp, from his fatal attempt to reach the pole, which was cool. My sister was much more interested in the animals, so we did not spend as long in the camp. All told, it was smaller than I expected, which was a little disappointing. But it was a good time. Spent the rest of the day wandering around Auckland, though lots of things were closed because it was Sunday and Easter. This made it hard to find a bookstore for my sister (something we rectified at the airport, where everything was open) to acquire British science fiction books in, for their vastly superior covers. Got some lunch at a little Italian place, got some drinks at an outdoor cafe, and then headed off to the airport. The flight back was pretty fucking rough with the turbulence. Never really been on a flight that bucked and rolled so much. Kept trying to fall asleep and kept failing as the entire bottom of the plane felt like it was trying to escape. But we made it through fine, which was nice. The food options were pretty much as lame as they were on the way out, but whatever. Made it to LA fine and the trip was over.
For as much stuff as we did there, I really feel like we only scratched the surface. There are numerous multi-day tramps I would have loved to do, as well as national parks where we did a single hike which have many more cool hikes to offer. In terms of the touristy stuff, I think we hit most of the high points, so that was fine, but a trip back to do much more of the outdoor adventuring is totally in order.