My parents arrived in Auckland bright and early Saturday morning and Justin and I picked them up at the airport after they cleared customs around 7:30. There were hugs and tears of joy all around (well at least for the women)! We drove back to our apartment and then headed out for some breakfast. After enjoying a welcome breakfast at
L'Assiette, a cute french cafe near my office, we got M&D down for a nap.
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| Stopping to rest on our way home from breakfast (in front of the Cloud) |
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| Rainbow on our walk home from breakfast |
We spent the afternoon exploring some Auckland sites by car including Tamaki Drive down to St. Heilers where we enjoyed fresh baked goods from
Bakers Delight and Daddy admired (and photographed) the boardwalk. We also took in the view from Mt Eden and the Auckland Domain. We had an early dinner at
Jack Tar on the North Wharf before heading to bed early.
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| Auckland skyline from Tamaki Drive |
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| Boardwalk in St Heilers |
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| Father and daughter at Bastion Point |
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| Both my parents (at different times) wanted a photo of this restroom |
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| M&D on top of Mt Eden |
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| Sunset at Auckland Domain |
On Sunday, we got a late start and headed out to the west coast around 11. We stopped at Pack and Save on the way to pick up some picnic supplies. The day was overcast and very windy, with on and off rain but we didn't let that stop us. We did, however, opt to eat our picnic inside the car with a view of Piha beach. After lunch, Justin, Daddy, and I went exploring on the beach. We saw tons of starfish on our walk including a bright orange one.
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| Bright orange starfish and a demonstration of the word windy by my hair |
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| How many do you see? My dad is an expert starfish hunter. |
Next we took the short hike to
KareKare falls. It was a fun hike (in the rain) through the forest to the bottom of the falls. Then it was off to Muriwai beach. We took a short hike up to the lookout and were lucky enough to see the
Gannet colony. The birds had not been nesting during our previous visits to the beach.
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| KareKare Falls |
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| Fun Lindsay being reckless despite the warnings! |
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| Gannet colony |
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| Muriwai Beach |
We capped off the night with dinner at
Hallertau. We got some appetizers to share and Mommy was not impressed with the pork belly but the rest of us enjoyed it thoroughly!
1 comments:
Wow! All those cool and gorgeous photos (fancy bathroom, sunset, starfish, falls), an interesting one (an extreme boardwalk closeup) and the thing I remember is Lindsay's shiny boots and her maniacally threatening to jump from a cliff. Well, thanks for sharing your parent's visit with us.