Bart Bear's Blog

We were in Auckland on Christmas Day. Most things were closed but the Sky Tower was open. This is a 328 metre high telecom tower right in the CBD. It has an observation deck on the 51st floor. Knowing that Dad is a wuss when it comes to heights, of course we took him there. Well, we found that Mum has a bit of a problem as well. You see, some of the floor was glass and you could see right down to ground level. You can see the different techniques used by the Oldies to make their crossing of a glass section. Dad treated it like nasty medicine; hold nose, close eyes and get it over with quickly. Mum used the cover eyes and shuffle method. After the first crossing, they were OK. You get great views of the city from the tower. Here are two looking over the harbour. The left one shows one of the many large marinas dotted around the harbour. Kiwis are mad on sailing and really give the USA solid competition for the America's Cup. The right one is looking over the CBD to where the ship is docked. The ship that you can see at the other dock is "Golden Princess". In the background is Rangitoto, the most recent volcano of the dozens in the Auckland area. It has never gone off while I was there.

This afternoon we fly out from Canberra, on our way to one of my favourite places. Hint: it is one of the few countries whose name is 4 letters long and only 3 of them are different.

Labels: New Zealand