Haka! ...and on the water AGAIN!

On our last day in Auckland the girls and I - feeling a bit queasy from the questionable lunch the day before...boarded another bus and set off to seek out the Maori Cultural performance at the Auckland Museum.  The Maori are the indigenous people of New Zealand and we'd heard great things about the performance at the Auckland Museum.  The bus dropped us off near the museum (though down the hill) so after a grueling push of the storller - or pram as they call it here - we made it to the top of the hill and the museum.  The performance was wonderful.  Great voices and peformers showed us dances, games, one with a poi which Emma really took to, and they performed the famous Maori Haka which is a traditional war dance...it is now performed by the Rugby team the All Blacks.  Check out the links at the site linked to Haka for more information and a video!

After a quick view of some of the museums treasures, we returned to town to meet JP at the Maritime Museum for an afternoon cruise on a scow, the Ted Ashby.  The day was stunning and this was certainly a highlight for us all.  We sailed under the Harbor bridge and our group got to cheer on a bungee jumper who jumped from the bridge as we sailed by!  The captain let Emma steer...fortunately she did a great job and we didn't hit anything on our return trip!

Auckland is the City of Sail and you can see why.  Surrounded by beautiful water, marinas and history, we enjoyed our stay.  Now we look forward to a trek across the North Island via train tomorrow!