On the water again!

Emma enjoyed the short ferry ride so much that she wanted to set off on a longer water adventure!  We set out in the rain for a longer ride around the harbor.  It was a bit cold but the ferry gave great views of the sky tower, marina, Harbor Bridge, boats on the water and the many old volcanoes that surround Auckland. 

Emma took lots of pictures and we enjoyed the ride around the scenic harbor.  We then had a bit of a gap to jump between from the ferry to the dock at one of the stops where we set off on an antartic adventure.  We went to Kelly Tarltons to see penguin feedings, ride a snow cat around live penguins for an upclose view (which ended with a very old, fake orca whale popping out of the water with a fake seal in his mouth).  On the whole it was a bit underwhelming, but the NIWA interactive area was the highlight.  I think the sandwich at the seaview (which was neat) cafe made me sick later that evening. 

We tried to catch a ride back to town on the free shark head bus...but we and 5 others missed it by a few minutes and had to stand in the rain to wait...unfortunately the stellar transportation system failed us as one bus blew by 8 of us waiting at the the stop, and the next one had a less then friendly driver, but, regardless, we and our trusty stroller built for two (which folds up nicely - thanks mom and dad)! made it home to our hotel after a rather cold and soggy outing!