on to the museum

After our talk with Prince, we head back to the Auckland Museum where we begin our "on our own time" - we decide to start with lunch in the cafe before heading into the museum. I had the bacon and egg pie and the boys had various sandwiches which we all thought were fabulous food (especially for a museum) and I tried another brand of ginger beer...LOL

The museum is first rate- and there is so much to see - even though we three split up from each other to spend our time as each of us wanted - I still felt rushed... we had a meet up time to head out (on our own - not with the group- who went off to see some churches and a gallery district)

We had weeks ago made a reservation at the O'Connell Street Bistro for dinner upon the late Johnny Apple's recommendation and so would not be going to the group "dinner on your own" tonight and would see them all the following morning as we left Auckland for other parts of the North Island.

the war memorial floor:

an old time village re-creation:

a holocaust memorial:

Maori exhibit with large canoe and meeting houses:

an exhibit of whimsy- art and craft items collected by the museum:

an exhibit on science:

the new addition to the museum:

 



back on to the bus - a vet at the bus stop had a cute ad:

 



 

then for dinner the Bistro:

 

my starter- the steak tartare:

my main - the rabbit pappardelle:

the boy's mains:

our desserts:

 

a quick bus ride up the hill for 50cents and we were back at the hotel before midnight- so we could make Mike's ungodly hour wake up call--- he wants to get away before 8 AM tomorrow as we have a long day on the road to Rotorua - which would prove to be very true- lots to do and see along the way! 

 

so stay tuned!

 

oh but before we "leave" Auckland - I have one miscellaneous photo of the sky needle/sky tower, when the sun was actually shining on it- much of our time in Auckland was punctuated with rain showers and cloudy skies but we had intermittent sun which gave me a chance for this shot: