We started our day with a drive out to Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World. We tried throwing the kiddies to the sharks, but they weren't hungry apparently.
During the stingray feeding (picture a few 250kg stingrays with wingspans of over 2 metres) the apparently-optimistic girl said she was in no danger of being skewered by a 30 cm barb unless she stood on one...
We made our way over to the well-to-do Mission Bay, and picked up some award winning fish and chips. As we were busily attempting to digest the greasy bounty, we couldn't help but notice a gargantuan variety of seagull.
Where these guys came from, I have no idea - but am thinking there must be some common ancestry with the Moa.
After surviving the encounter with the Pterotacty-gull, we took a drive up to Achilles Point Lookout, where every second person we encountered was jogging and wearing a pedometer. This trend continued well after dark, my thoughts are that they must have had chips for lunch too.
We ventured back into town, and made our way up the Sky Tower. Some clearly insane fellow had just taken the quick way down (on a wire on the outside of the structure) and was conveying an adult-equivalent of "again, again!" to the attendant. The elevator designers thought it might be funny to stick a window in the floor of the elevator compartment.
My opinion of these comedians continued to diminish as the ground plummeted away beneath us. The view was spectacular, with the kids enjoying the glass sections of flooring that allowed them to look straight down.Having remarkably survived our trip up the concrete tower, we had some dinner, and then drove back out to Mission Bay, where the joggers were still at it. We had spied an Ice Creamery called Movenpick earlier in the day, and returned to the place still doing a roaring trade. Lily and I couldn't go past the Hokey Pokey option, while Jenny decided for Tiramsu and our ever-adventurous Hamish opted for Vanilla...
Feeling just a little full (imagine the spherical Veruca Salt in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), we called into the local supermarket on the way back to the Hotel. With the apple-peel 'W" of Woolworths, the place was called.... Countdown. Countdown?? I was expecting Molly Meldrum to bag my groceries. To just complete my positive impression of New Zealand after this glorious day, I noted with pleasure that there was a BEER aisle. Bless you, Kiwi shop designers, bless you.
