Saturday, January 2, 2016

Kia Ora







Sunday, January 3rd.
Kia Ora means welcome in Maori, and this was our welcome day to the tour.

After breakfast I packed up my suitcases and checked out of the hotel. I made two trips to the Ibis Styles Hotel where I will meet up with the GAdventure group this evening. I took the large red bag first as I thought it might be hard to control it going downhill and then back up the other side to the hotel. I left the bags there and walked the rest of the way to the harbour and used the free ferry ticket to Devonport that I was given for buying the harbour trip yesterday. 

I spent the day wandering around the town. It is a very pretty, quaint suburb of Auckland. There are two small volcanic cones and I climbed both to get wonderful views of the city and the harbour. The weather today was much improved, it was warmer, less windy and although there were several short sprinkles of rain, the rest of the time was a mix of sun and cloud. I enjoyed the walks and headed back to Auckland by 4:30. 

I walked back to the hotel and checked in. I had a short nap as the sun had tapped me out. I managed to get a sunburn today on my head and neck and can feel the warmth. 

At 7:00 I went down to the lobby to meet the group. Our CEO (chief experience officer) is Max and there are fourteen of us. There are four of us from Toronto, including Bev, Carol and myself, my roommate Jan from Norway, and others from the US, Ireland, Germany, England and South Africa. It is an older group and only a couple of young people. After the introductions and the official paperwork we went to a Thai restaurant and had a really good meal. I talked to Max, Jan and Marie about travel and different GAdventure experiences. Back to the hotel where I have my own room for the night as Jan is staying an extra night in the room he booked for five days. Tomorrow we will be roommates.

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