Rainy Day Walk About

Friday January 1, 2016.

Visited with Mom, Dad and Danny before Ken and Mike drove me to the airport. Sad to say goodbye to family and good friends. At the airport I saw a group of people standing off to the side as other people were checking them in. I guessed correctly that they were Syrian refugees. I went over and talked to a family of six and welcomed them to Canada. They spoke a little English and were obviously nervous and excited about starting a new life in Windsor Ontario. 

Flights from Toronto to Vancouver and Vancouver to Auckland were both uneventful. I had managed to book an aisle seat for the long 14 hour journey. I watched the last season of Two and A Half Men while drifting off and on. The pilot announced Happy New Year to us as we ate our breakfast two hours out of Auckland. 

We arrived by 5:30 am. My red bag never arrived on the carousel, so I went and reported it had not made the flight. As I left I went past the same carousel and there it was sitting about where I had been standing! I can only assume that someone took it by mistake and then brought it back. Whatever, I happily went back and reported I found it. 

Took the SkyBus from the airport to the Ascotia Of Queen Hotel which I had booked the last night in Toronto. I arrived at eight and had to sit in the lobby for a couple of hours, as it was raining, waiting for a room to be ready for me. In my room I had a couple of hours nap as I am very tired from the frantic activities in Toronto and the flights. When I woke up I spent the afternoon setting up my blog, and organizing folders for photos. 

I tried to rent a car to drive to the Coromandel to visit Larry Eade (from the African trip) but there are none available. The buses are all booked too. Disappointing, however it is supposed to rain for the next two days, so not sure going to the beach area was a good idea anyway.

At 6 pm I went for a walk along Queen Street to the harbour. It was still heavily overcast, drizzly and cool. The first shop I came across was Real Groovy, a huge used music and book store like Sonic Boom. Being January 1^st most shops were closed and the street was quiet. The movie theatre was very busy and Star Wars was the feature attraction. When I got to the harbour I checked out the ferries to the harbour islands and just wandered around. On the way back I checked out the local eateries, lots of Korean, Japanese and Indian small restaurants. I finally decided to just buy some fruit, yogurt and chocolate milk. Back to the room by 9:30.