Doing Auckland

We've been here just over a week now - feels like longer because we've been doing so much - and we've really been enjoying getting out to see what Auckland has to offer.  So far we've:

1. visited the aquarium.
2. visited Auckland Domain, a very fine park in the centre of Auckland and where the museum is located.  The football pitches are in the flattened out cauldron of one of Auckland's many extinct volcanoes!  
3. visited the Auckland Museum.  Reuben was very taken by the volcano exhibit so we had to go round that twice and was so upset when we had to leave that he cried.  So we clearly need to go back but as they also did a very fine spinach and feta muffin in the café that's no hardship!  While I was in the museum with the children, Dave popped over to City Hospital to pick up some paperwork and came back feeling very chuffed about his office, which is on the 15th floor and has an amazing view over the Domain and right across Auckland, which is better than the usual standard issue NHS view of 2 drainpipes and a fire escape (if you're lucky).
4. visited the art gallery and had a stroll through downtown Auckland.  We went past the Sky Tower and thought we'd stumbled across a major incident as every fire engine for miles around seemed to be parked at the bottom, but no, it was a charity fundraising race with fire fighters competing to see who can scale the 1103 steps the fastest, whilst wearing all their breathing apparatus!  Winning time just over 8 minutes according to two that we spoke to, who admitted to walking up.  Some fire fighters were clearly fitter than others!
   
5. been up Mount Wellington, another of Auckland's 49 volcanoes.  We happened to coincide with another charity race that went up the volcano and back, which was being run by the serious, walked by the less serious and done by teams of 3 guys carrying another in a wheelbarrow for the completely nutty (but why was the largest guy the one in the barrow, we wondered?)  We were verging on the uncomfortably warm as we walked up in brilliant sunshine and realised we hadn't put any sunscreen on the children, but it's the equivalent of November here and we haven't got used to 'November' and 'brilliant sunshine' being used together in the same sentence!
6. been to the truly superb climbing wall, the acme of climbing walls as far as we're concerned, with loads of climbs that children can do.  It was swarming with children and they were all having a great time.  This was Reuben's first go climbing in a harness and he was up to the top (about 7 metres) without a backward glance and after a bit of practice was abseiling off the top and bouncing himself back to the ground.
7. been to Cornwall Park and up One Tree Hill, our third (conscious) volcano visit.
8. been to Devonport across the Harbour Bridge on Auckland's North Shore this afternoon.  The weather has been very blustery today and it started to rain as we drove down into the centre of Devonport so we didn't get to wander around much.  Liked what we saw though, so will earmark it for a return visit, perhaps going by ferry across the harbour.

Auckland comes in at number 4 in a 2010 international comparison of quality of life in cities, which is a lot to live up to, but so far we think it's great.   I like the fact that in late autumn you need to think about wearing sunscreen and can hang out your washing and it will dry within the day, though I'm not sure they were included in the factors that the liveability index was measuring!