We woke to a cloudy, misty day today, one of the first we've seen like this but it's hard to complain since the land around here is in such desperate need of rain. Our plans were to walk to the city and take the bus to Mission Bay. First though, the baker at the Tart Bakery in the nearby community of Grey Lynn promised to bake some apricot scones for Stan today. We walked there and sure enough, there she was with the biggest most luscious scones you have ever ...

Hot cross buns today!!! We got them! And boy were they good! We got one chocolate-coffee bun and two plains which were definitey not plain. Good Lord! They were baked in the little bakery we found, the Tart Bakery, and were simply divine. Please understand these little tiny bakeries with peculiar names and absolutely no work room and little display room are everywhere. We just seem to find the really good spots, and they invariably have wonderful people run...

We celebrated our 38th wedding anniversary today (and probably will again tomorrow since it's still yesterday in Atlanta), by walking down from Grey Lynn/Ponsonby to the central business district, watching for meaningful souvenirs along the way, and catching the ferry across the bay to Devonport. Our walk to the Ferry Terminal took us through Myers Park once again so I got a chance to get some better photos - seems the park was established in 1913. We had hope...

Auckland, City of Sails! Auckland is perhaps one of the busiest cities we have encountered so far. Set in a unique position in the neck of the North Island of New Zealand, it is actually possible to see the Tasman Sea on the west side of the land and the Pacific Ocean on the east side. It is a big, big shipping port - exporting New Zealand goods to ports all over the world. Like Wellington, Auckland is also an active cruise line port. When the ships come in, ...

We saw a remarkable presentation at the Carter Observatory today, called "We Are Astronomers." What we saw was a 45-minute fabulously produced video on space, including all that stuff that's out there and our Milky Way Galaxy. We learned how astronomers and scientists today collaborate via the Internet on the vast amount of research and data being gathered to better understand the universe. It was this group, by the way, who envisoned and launched the creation o...