Trip with Mom & Dad: Day 9 - Hamilton & Auckland

January 4, 2014

We started off a gorgeous Saturday morning with a trip to the Hamilton New Zealand temple. I guess it's a good thing my parents have an obsession with being overly early, because when we arrived 30 minutes early for the 8:30 session, the waiting room was already full and we felt like we barely made it!

We had a wonderful time in the temple, bought a few things at the distribution center and then took some photos. Also, Brian got to wear his Christmas gift from Mom & Dad - thanks again it as great! It was turning into a beautiful, sunny day so the pictures turned out quite nicely - Enjoy!

We found a really nice sister who took a picture of all of us together! Isn't it beautiful here? The clouds in the sky are just amazing - I can't get over how picturesque this country is even after living here for a whole year.

Mom really liked the statue garden

At the entrance to the Hamilton Temple

This is the lovely view from the entrance to the temple. It was amazing in every direction. I love that temples are built on hills or mountains when the space is available! 

And here's the proof that it was a hot day - mom is in a t-shirt with no jacket!!!

We then headed up to Auckland for a little sight-seeing in New Zealand's largest city. Our little hotel was tucked away off one of the main downtown streets, Queen Street, and after a few wrong turns we finally arrived only to find that our room had no air condition. Can we say miserable? 

Well, the heat took a lot out of us, so we ended up resting for a bit and then headed over to the famous Sky Tower for some breathtaking views of the city. Hopefully the 360 degree view counts as seeing Auckland! 

Downtown Auckland as we make our way to Sky Tower behind us

I love Mom - she's falling out the window. It sure doesn't look like Dad is going to catch her!

 Dad really liked all the sail boats docked right in front of the Harbour Bridge. What we didn't tell him until the next day is that Auckland is also called the 'City of Sails' because it has 135,000 registered yachts and launches registered in Auckland. Pretty cool fact!

I had to get a picture of the PwC building - what amazing waterfront property we have. I'm such a nerd.

Because we stayed in the tower for dinner, we had some amazing views of the sunset.

Some of the downtown area - including Vector Arena, home of the Sky City Breakers (the NZ team in the Australian basketball league) as well as the venue for the majority of concerts in New Zealand 

View across the harbor of Devonport and Rangitoto Island 

View of the harbor at twilight

Brian with Mom & Dad who were resting and hanging out while I was busy being photo happy

I was glad I took this last photo of these rolling hills with crater-like dips in the middle because Mom asked us later if those were old volcanoes. I wasn't sure, so I did a little research to answer her question. It turns out that thousands of years ago, the Auckland volcanic field produced about 50 volcanoes in the area which means this hill she asked me about is likely a dormant volcano.  Also interestingly, the picture including Rangitoto Island a few pictures above was formed within the last 1,000 years making it the most recent and largest volcano in the area.

We grabbed some dinner at the cafe inside the Sky Tower and then called it a night. What party poopers we are!  On the way home, we noticed that there was a church building literally next door to our hotel. At least church tomorrow morning is going to be easy :)  I maintain that I planned it that way on purpose...