Creepy Beckoning Santa
Trip Start
May 22, 2005
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97
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Trip End
Jan 22, 2006
Auckland,
New Zealand
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Auckland is a pretty harbour city of 1.3 million. Our hotel was located near Queen Street which is Auckland's main thoroughfare. We only had a few days in Auckland so we took the time to explore the city on foot. Here are the highlights of our happy wanderings:
1) The Christmas decorations were out in full force and as we walked along Queen Street, we both gasped in horror as a giant Santa came into view
Freaky Beckoning Winking Santa. Why Oh Why?!
. This impossibly creepy Santa was attached to one of the buildings and had one mechanical eye that winked at you menacingly and a mechanical finger that beckoned you hither. Apparently, New Zealanders like to scare the crap out of their children in preparation for Christmas.2) The pride of Auckland was the Sky Tower. At 328 metres, it is the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere. Why do countries that suffer from insecurity construct tall towers? The pride of the largest city in Canada is the CN Tower. We did the obligatory tour and the top of the Sky Tower afforded beautiful views of the harbour and the city.
3) New Zealanders are really into sailing and we walked around the swanky American Express Viaduct Harbour that was constructed to host the 2000 & 2003 America's Cup.
4) We sampled on several occasions New Zealand's national ice cream--the Hokey Pokey. This iconic flavour was created in New Zealand in the 1940s and consists of vanilla ice cream with pieces of toffee. It is as exciting as it sounds.
5) We found this great Chinese restaurant down from our hotel that served the best homemade pork bone soup. Mmm, good!
6) Fire and brimstone street preachers are a big thing in Auckland. On Friday night Bible-thumping preachers stake their claim on every street corner of Queen Street and warning in explicit terms of the coming Judgment.
Before we took off from Auckland to drive to the Bay of Islands we again packed our car full of select goodies. After months of travelling we had through trial and error become hotel room gourmets. With hot water as our only cooking implement we are able to create cheap, delicious and nourishing meals from the confines of our ever-changing temporary lodging. Our all time favourite creation is the instant mash potato sandwich--the king of hotel room dining. With the addition of a car to act as our mobile pantry we were destined on this trip to reach new heights of hotel room gastronomy!
