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Boo hoo…our final day in New Zealand!

We joined a half day Auckland tour in the morning…

…where we went to (or rather, went past!):

Victoria Park Market…

…Auckland Harbour Bridge…

…Auckland Domain…

…Mt. Eden…

…Parnell, Auckland’s oldest suburb where we had breakfast at Alphabet (French Toast and Grilled Bananas…again!)…

…and Kelly Tarltons Antartic Encounter and Underwater World where we saw penguins and stingrays! Half the area was closed though, due to an earlier power outtage in Auckland which caused some flooding in the shark tunnel…

While waiting for the tour bus to pick us up from Kelly Tarltons, we took some photos of the city centre from afar…

In the afternoon, we walked to Sky Tower…

…where we had lunch at Orbit, a revolving restaurant at the top of Sky Tower. I had penne pasta with sundried tomato, sauteed onions (nice!) and sauteed scallops, hubby had oven baked veal rack on kumara and parmesan mash with pickled garlic and mushroom jus.

…and took plenty of photos!

After lunch, we walked to Sky City Metro. As it looked like it was about to rain, we decided to watch a movie at the cinema inside the building (Just My Luck, starring Lindsay Lohan). By the time the movie ended, it was late evening and it was getting dark. As we haven’t found a nice thimble yet, we spent the rest of the time hunting high and low through every imaginable souvenier shop along Queen Street to buy the final thimble of the trip, before having dinner at Cafe 88 where we had sweet and sour pork rice, wonton soup, hot and sour soup and duck+siew yoke rice. Yes yes, I know…last day in NZ and we went for Chinese food!!

The rest of the night was spent back at the hotel packing all our souveniers and clothes in preparation for our flight home the next day…