New Zealand Day 2: Tea with a Chief

The harsh reality of tour group travel set in with our 6:30AM wakeup call. As I reviewed our full trip itinerary that was handed out by our tour leader the previous day, I came to terms with the fact that I would be getting up at almost the same time every day on vacation as I do for work. OMG. [In retrospect, it wasn't THAT bad. There's a difference between getting up at 6AM to hop on a bus and follow someone else's well-planned itinerary that might include drinking wine, hiking among hot springs, or cruising through some of the best scenery in the world VS. getting up at 6AM to go do battle with any number of problems and crises that might be thrown your way at the office].

We began our day with a public bus ride (much nicer than it sounds, in Auckland. Their buses are pretty nice) up toward the War Memorial Museum. As we sat around after listening to our guide prepare us for meeting "Prince" (a Maori tribe prince), we couldn't quite figure out why the rush to get up and out the door so early. We had a good half hour to spare. I guess our guide didn't know our group yet and built in a half-hour for those who might sign up for a group tour, but yet be completely unable to follow a schedule.

Prince came and talked. I don't remember much of it because the lady sitting next to me on the steps outside the museum noticed that there was a trail of ants crawling up my leg. I couldn't really get up and move in the middle of the Maori prince's spiel, so I sat there for what was an entirely too-long period of time flicking ants off my feet. I completely missed his profound Maori wisdom. Note how I have one leg touching the pavement in an attempt to minimize the number of ants with access.

Once Prince was finished, we began a walk through the large park in which the museum was set. I kept thinking that soon Prince would wrap things up and it would be time for tea, but we spent at least another hour standing under a large tree listening to Prince talk.

Just when I thought I was going to pass out before any of the older folks did from standing for so long, we made out way to an area of the park where Prince's family had set up tea. It was lovely and Prince's wife and daughter-in-law were very sweet. I could have used  a few more cookies, but oh well.

After that, Sweetie and I ventured to the cafe in the War Museum and had an early lunch. I ordered a cup of vegetable soup, which took approximately 30 minutes to prepare. It was officially the longest I have EVER had to wait for a bowl of vegetable soup, including the times I have prepared it myself from scratch. Once I scarfed that down, we breezed through the museum with the little remaining time after my soup marathon. Random observation: the museum had a small, but fascinating and high quality, Japanese ceramics exhibit. 

After that, we walked back down through The Domain (a large park), and wondered how we could get across the rather significant highway that stood between us and the city center. Just as we were wondering that, three people came upon us and asked how to get to the Museum. We said we'd tell them if they could tell us how to cross the highway and get into the city. It was a fair trade.

That evening, the tour group wandered around the city a bit before riding the ferry across the harbor to dinner in lovely Davenport.

I was careful to check my bag for the odd rainbow skink that might have slipped in without me noticing before we headed across the harbor. We already knew I had an ant problem.