Gary+Jess:Its a Mini Adventure
 Auckland Once again we arrived late at the camp site having been in our first proper rush hour traffic since Vietnam! To be fair it`s the first time we`ve seen more than 2 cars together in New Zealand! So obviously Jess was having a major stress about all the "crazy people" who "can`t drive for sweets"....at least i think that was what it was, i didnt quite catch the last bit. Having calmed the little ball of rage known as Jess sufficiently to go out in public we headed for the maritime museum, which had a big exhibit on sailing, especially the Americas Cup. They even had a mocked up bit of AC boat with grinders to play on. To my absolute horror Jess won, using only 1 hand! It was only afterwards I discovered that her winch didn`t appear to be in gear! Having got a taste for the Americas cup we decided the only appropriate course of action was to go and sail one the following day. So we did. It really is quite a pleasant view when you`re driving with the kite up...all those lovely big sails! Jess got to helm upwind though and did a few tacks! Very jealous! Saturday we went to an aquarium built in old sewers by some guy called Kelly Tarlton. They had a big tank of fairly beasty rays that got fed while we were there, which was very amusing, especially when thay tried to swim over the poor guy in the tank! They also had a big area dedicated to the Antarctic as well as Cpt. Scott`s ill fated expedition, including a mock up of the early base stations and more penguins than you could p-p-p-p-p-pick up in a life-time! We spent our final full day going for a jolly up the sky tower. Our attention was caught by the sign saying "jumper in 30 seconds". We thought thats a very formal way of killing yourself. As claimed, a jumper did indeed emerge, to be dangled before the observatory for our amusement before being dropped the 200+m to the ground. Having finished watching people throw themselves off the tower we went to a bar called `Minus 5`, which quite appropriately was indeed at minus 5 and made of ice. Even the glasses were made of ice. Lots of lovely photos of the sculptures, including an ice david featuring a slightly melted appendage. Apparently he gets a lots of attention from visitors.... So our final day in NZ had arrived and it was off to the airport with us. Dropping off our faithful little campervan on the way...
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Diary Photos
| 14th Aug 2006 | |
| America's Cup Sailing! Again! | |
| Gary helming the ACC yacht NZL40 downwind. |
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