First Day Out in Auckland

In New Zealand, we stayed with the Sturgess family—Ken, Debbie, Erin and Paige—originally from Johannesburg, South Africa. Ken used to work for the American International School of Johannesburg which is where Aaron's mom and step-dad worked when they lived in Jo'burg. When we visited Aaron's parents in 2001 we met Ken and his family, enjoyed a meal together and attended a meeting with them at the local Kingdom Hall. Three years ago they moved to New Zealand. Over the years we've emailed once or twice but when we moved to Guam we realized that we were in the same part of the world for a change. They invited us to stay with them when we visited Auckland. And so we did. They are gorgeous! We enjoyed our visit with them very much!

After visiting Bethel, we stopped by the house to pick up Deb for a quick tour of a few of Auckland's high points (literally). Auckland is a very clean and beautiful city with lots of parks. We started at One Tree Hill in Cornwall Park featuring green fields with grazing sheep and cattle, huge shade trees, lush gardens and stunning panoramic views of the city and surrounding area.

Next on the list: Mount Eden—a cinder cone and the highest natural point in the whole of Auckland. In pre-European times Mount Eden was utilized as a fortified hill or pa by various Maori tribes. Again, stunning views!

A little chilled by the brisk weather, we found ourselves at Galbraith's Alehouse—a real cozy pub—for lunch and a sampling of their brews.

After lunch, Deb headed off to pick up the girls from school. Ken, Aaron and I proceeded into the heart of the city.

We snooped around the marina, the boys did a little dreamin', we picked up some tourist brochures and did a little window shopping. I was looking for some sheep's wool slippers for my cold feet but they wanted an arm and a leg for them and—let's face it—I won't be needing them in Guam! So I settled for some of Ken's wool socks. We retired to the house, enjoyed a delicious family meal, heard about the girls' school day and planned for our next excursion. Almost forgot: Click for more pics!