This morning we left the calm restful atmosphere of the Convent Hotel and drove into downtown Auckland to SkyCity, an entertainment, hotels, restaurants, casino and theatre complex that boasts the SkyTower, the second tallest freestanding structure in the Southern Hemisphere! Our purpose; a 10:30am appointment to walk around the SkyDeck and to jump off of it! Thankfully the wind was a mild 7mph and the recent storm had passed. We even had some sun!We suited up  along with 3 more adventurous women and took the quick elevator ride to the top! We stepped outside!

This was actually after we finished our walk on the deck, we were all relieved to get back behind the railing!

Our guide walked us out onto the platform – sans railings, and led us through several challenges. We all got visibly more relaxed during the 20-30 minutes we were out there, even letting go of our guide rope in front of us (which Robert never used as a security handhold!)We all headed back down to the lobby and Robert and I exchanged our SkyWalk harnesses for the SkyJump harnesses. Another woman who hadn’t done the SkyWalk suited up and was the first to jump today! I was second!

In the cable room. The guides are very vigilant about safety!

And before you know it, the wind is whistling through your hair and you don’t even notice that you’re screaming!

Robert’s turn!

I could hear him scream from the base of the tower where I waited for him to arrive!

You can see video of Robert’s jump HERE!

We were all done by 12:30! What a morning! We still had plenty of time to get to our next accomodation, a VRBO in Maketu, on the beach about a 40 minute drive north of Rotorua. It was a pleasant drive, mostly on highways, until we got to a steep drive up and over a pass in the Kaimai Range and lots of roundabouts, road construction and rush hour in Tauranga, the closest large town.

We had a rainbow guiding us part of the way to our destination, at the end of the rainbow!

We got moved in and enjoyed a glass of wine as we surveyed the view and found out we have a sunset view here!

An exciting day with a fitting end!

Our last morning with the wonderful Bay of Islands view.

Today we left Bay of Islands to continue our tour of New Zealand. We left in a light rain and traveled to Auckland, through misty rain, heavy rain and sideways rain. I wonder if the Maori have many names for different grades of rain, like the Inuit have for grades of snow? We finally made it to our destination, The Convent Hotel, a boutique hotel near downtown that was a convent in it’s early days. An interesting history of the building can be found HERE.

The walls are covered with eclectic art, some with religious tones.

Cabinets have religious figures and artifacts that may have been used at the convent.

After settling in we went for a walk around the area to stretch our legs. The area seems to be gentrifying, with many older maybe 1920’s era houses being restored, and a few very dilapidated houses yet to be fixed up.

This mosaic was one of several along a wall in the shopping and dining strip a few blocks along the street.

This row of houses with the same peaked roof design exemplify the style of housing in this neighborhood. Almost all the houses have metal roofs.

It being Halloween here, we saw kids in costume with Moms and Dads tagging along, trick or treating on the residential streets. It’s a relatively new tradition here, so we didn’t see elaborate Halloween decorations anywhere, but there was some!

Happy Halloween!

Today we woke up to a rainy, blustery day! The tail end of Cyclone Lola that devastated parts of Vanuatu a week ago, has been lashing the north island for over a day now. Vanuatu is an island chain in Melanesia, east of Australia and 2,931 km (1,821 miles) generally north of New Zealand. We were safe and warm in our apartment and we put the time to good use. We booked the last part of our long adventure, the route back to Bend, via “The Canadian” train from Toronto, Ontario to Vancouver, BC! We had to get the tickets about 11 months ahead of time to ensure we could get a bedroom cabin for the 4 night journey across the vastness of Canada! We added 2 short train rides from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Montreal, Quebec, and from there to Toronto! To truly cross the continent!

Then the power went out! We had no Wifi, no TV, no oven, etc. So we cooked burgers on the gas grill! And we still had cold beer in the fridge! We roughed it for about 4 hours, then the power came back on! Whew!

Our usual view obscured by rain! Too wet to even walk to the edge of the garden!

We got up early in order to go to a local pub to watch the Rugby World Cup Finals, starting at 8am! Twin Pines Manor is an older historic building a quick 5 minute drive from where we’re staying. It would have been a nice walk but a storm came in and it was raining and windy! They had a Halloween party last night so it was well decorated! We joined the locals who were excited and welcoming.

Robert sidled up to the historic swamp kauri bar top and ordered a beer. The proprietor made sure he had a tall one, so he wouldn’t have to miss any of the game by getting up to get another beer!

If you look closely you can see ghosts in the background!

Unfortunately the Haka was not enough to rouse the All Blacks to win the game. They lost 11-12 to the South African team, even though the Springboks didn’t score a goal. They got all 12 of their points on penalty kicks, so basically the All Blacks gave the game away.

The day before the storm that is supposed to be wet and windy! We did some shopping to fill the fridge before the storm comes, and for snacks during the Rugby World Cup Final on Sunday! We finished the day with a walk around Paihia, probably the last time before we leave on Tuesday, Halloween. We walked up a set of stairs we’ve noticed before, but never explored, and got a great view!

The wharf to the right has the dock for the ferry to Russell and docks for the scenic cruises to the islands and Hole in the Rock. The helicopter will fly out to Hole in the Rock also, but land on top too! For more $$$$!

The staircase is just to the right of “Paihias Wee Toilets” and goes up the hill behind the building. The toilets are worth a picture too!

I think they were going for the Hundertwasser image. I just love the stainless steel toilets on the roof!

We stopped at the Tipsy Oyster for some oysters and beer, and again I forgot to take a picture of the oysters before we ate them!

So here’s a picture of a little diorama on the bar, cute little oysters!

Across the street, along the beach, are a line of towering pohutukawa trees I mentioned before. We spotted a few of them beginning to bloom, a harbinger of a summer-like Christmas!

We’ve seen the buds on lots of the pohutukawa we’ve seen on many beaches, but never imagined they would be this red!