Hot in the City Tonight

Well I've made it to Sydney, and it is damn hot here.  Today's high was 42, over 100 in Fahrenheit.  So of course yesterday I went to world-famous Manly Beach to stay cool.  But I did not show enough respect for the Australian Sun, and now my back, shoulders and face are pretty burnt.

Now back to some of the better times of these travels.  Snorkeling in the Cook Islands was good enough that I decided to try SCUBA.  I had to take the typical Discover Scuba course before getting out in the ocean, and it was all stuff that I remembered from previous times.  In the water, I had some trouble getting my buoyancy correct, so I had to work hard to avoid the reef.  It was enjoyable though, and there were many fish, including a lionfish that I spotted hiding in some rocks.  Since I know I'll be diving again on this, including here in Australia, I decided to go for certification.  I was back at Pacific Divers the next day for courses, skill work, and one more dive, and now I have the PADI SCUBA Diver certification.

After saying farewell, it was off to New Zealand.  Auckland is an extremely nice city.  Its actually built right on one of the hotspots in the Earth's crust, so there's a little bit of concern about where the next volcano will be and when it will go off, but for now the city is hilly, grassy, and beautiful.  Bus stops have digital readouts that display how long it will be until the next bus of each line will arrive there.  There are many parks, the biggest of which is the Domain which has tons of open space and fields for cricket and rugby.  Situated in the Domain is the Auckland Museum which had spectacular array of Maori (native New Zealander) artifacts and cultural items.  When I got lunch, there was a cricket game between the national teams of New Zealand and Pakistan.  When I went for dinner hours later, the game still had a long ways left to go.  The island of Rangitoto sits in Auckland's east harbor (Auckland is situated on the narrowest isthmus of the North Island and thus has a harbor on each side).  Rangitoto is the youngest volcano in the area, 600 yrs.  Hiking to the top makes for a great morning, and you get excellent views of the city.  I also walked around the rim, and through some caves that formed in the lava.

The only thing that didn't go well in Auckland was not having the key left for me at my hostel when I arrived.  It was late and all of the budget places' offices were closed, so I went looking for a place where guests could let me in.  I found one, and called their management and got the okay to stay over.  This may sound like a lot of mishaps for just couple of weeks in the trip, but that's just part of life on the road.