Exploring Auckland

It's starting to sink in that our time here is winding down. We still have 5 weeks left (a good solid amount of time), but considering that we've been here for over 3 months, it doesn't feel like we have that much time left. As a result, I've been making a conscious effort to go out and explore the city I'm living in.

I've been lucky that we've had several beautiful fall days lately. So the weather has been great for taking walks. Auckland is full of different neighborhoods, and it's really nice to just walk around and explore. There are lots of cafes and I love just strolling around and maybe stopping to grab a coffee or a muffin. (I've probably had more cups of coffee and muffins in these past couple of months than in the past couple of years combined!)

I don't have too much to really SAY about these walks because they pretty much just consist of walking (shocking, I know!) and looking around. So hopefully you can get a little idea from the pictures.

This was in a park in Ponsonby. Part of the sidewalk was tiled with an interesting mosaic.

Today I walked around Parnell. I was having trouble with my iPod and brought it to a store there, so since I was in the neighborhood, I decided to just stroll around. It's a pretty upscale neighborhood that is very residential in parts, but also has a main street with lots of cute shops, restaurants and cafes.

Here's a restaurant with garden seating:

And I found a cool piece of sidewalk in Parnell as well! There were pieces of broken ceramic in the sidewalk:
Continuing my pretty much random walk, I decided to take a look inside the cathedral that I've passed by several times now. I was just curious what the inside looked like, but as soon as I stepped through the door, this little old lady approached me. She gave me info so that I could do a quick "self-guided tour." She was just so friendly I had to take the pamplet from her! It was helpful though, because I learned that the stained glass window there (which was very pretty!) is the largest stained glass window in the Southern Hemisphere! The cathedral was nice inside, so I was happy with my decision to check it out.

The organ pipes (I realize that is probably pretty evident from the picture, but I'm telling you anyway!):
A pretty stained glass window:

And here's the really large one (Dad, this is for you):

This was another church right next door to the cathedral:

And in case you were wondering, yes, there ARE Starbucks in New Zealand. Tons of them, in fact. This one in Parnell is super-classy though, with the carved wooden sign:

And here's just a pretty street that I liked on the walk back: This is in the neighborhood of Newmarket, right next to Parnell. I don't know if you can see or not, but there's a cafe with outdoor tables.

So hopefully this random selection of photos gives you a slight feel for some of Auckland's neighborhoods!