November 10th, 2013 - Day 2 - Beauty and The Beast!

Woke up as any COL (couple of leisure) would, around 8:30-9ish, had coffee, ham and a banana. Then headed out deciding we would walk to the CBD instead of catching the bus because it was all downhill and we figured we needed the exercise.  Shouldn't be more than 30-45 minutes.  Checked out some hostels looking for camper van postings and found a few which we'll try contacting tomorrow. 
Sat in at the Esquires for a coffee and took advantage of the free WiFi, which was a bit dodgy at times.   It's nice to know that the comforts of home are still here.  Just like Vancouver, very multicultural so even though English is widely spoken, there is still a bit of a language barrier for me at times and not so much for Ryan.  For some reason I'm not easily understood here.  Perhaps I need to embrace "Island Life" and learn to slow down a bit? Lol.
We happened upon a Bikram Yoga studio while wandering around aimlessly and told myself I will sign up for their 3 classes for $24 intro rate. :) so I will go this week,  Mon, Wed & Fri.

Today for lunch we stumbled upon Food Alley which is a gem in downtown Auckland!!  Seriously!! Reasonably cheap good eats and you get to choose from all over the world!  Ryan had #4 at the Vietnamese place which was hot n spicy soup with meat, fish balls and rice noodles. Still not sure exactly what the meat was but it was soooo fricken good.  I had the Persian Chicken with yogurt and tabbouleh salad.  Mine was quite tasty as well with hints of mint and tender chicken.  $10 each. Tax included ($8.62 CAD).   Later that night we found that it was recommended in our Lonely Planet guide book. Score!

P.s. We also got a freshly squeezed beetroot, carrot and apple juice.










After lunch we walked down to the pier and caught the ferry over to Devonport. Only about 12 minutes long and it costs $11 each return ($9.48 CAD).  Here we walked through the small touristy town of shops and cafes.  The main street was lined with covered walkways, and the poles had themed knitting around them, (Think pole sweaters!) such as an underwater theme with starfish and shells, another covered in monkeys and bananas and others covered in flowers; or the one pictured here in the front is lips.

We also found another juice bar and got a super bliss ball which fueled us for the mini hike up to the top of Mount Victoria. 

Wow, what a view from up there.  Auckland is surrounded by 2 bodies of water and multiple volcanic made islands.

We ran into this hoity-toity English couple (probably in their 70s) who were nice enough but she just complained about all their travels especially how horrible Banff was and how rainy Whistler was...And how boring Brisbane is... blah blah blah... They were recently on a yacht with BC's Minister of Health...yadda yadda yadda.

Anyway, we eventually ventured down the hill back into town for a quick drink on a patio,  then carried on walking by the water at which point the wind picked up and Holy crackers it got so cold.  After about 30 minutes of that we'd had enough and caught the ferry back to the CBD. 

Ended up back at The Bluestone for another $10 steak dinner.  Ryan wasn't feeling well so we didn't stay long and took the bus home to relax.  Good thing we came home when we did because he felt really cold, couldn't get warm but definitely had a fever.  He took Tylenol which I forced on him, but he just kept getting warmer and feeling worse.  I began to worry and tried to force some Motrin on him but he could barely move and was still freezing (even with the heating blanket).  Less than 3 minutes later he promptly made his way to the bathroom where he purged what seemed like 3 days worth of food.  And now he is sleeping soundly, fever gone, no longer cold. 

And there you have the Beauty of Devonport but the Beast of a sickness for poor Ryan.  We still don't know if it was food poisoning; if he caught a bug of sorts; or if it was just plain old too much sun!