Auckland Day 3
Our last full day in Auckland we decided should be less about hanging out with small children all day and instead be partially about things we, as adults, would like. We headed to the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, which has a focus on contemporary and Maori art as well as a special installation about Renaissance Art specific to the Corsini family.
The museum was gorgeous with a fun layout and a whole lot of interesting installations. Some of the highlights, other than the huge selection of beautiful renaissance paintings and sculptures were portraits of Maori people complete with face tattoos and traditional jewelry, and the modern art piece that asked you to scream and shout about whatever was bothering you from the back of a truck bed. Apparently "more people than you might expect" actually take the art up on the suggestion and do a fair bit of yelling and swearing.
We grabbed some take away food from the museum cafe and a server with serious RBF and headed home to enjoy the afternoon with a nap and a light snack. While the baby took his nap, The kids and I went looking in the various shops on Queen street—Auckland's biggest shopping district—for gumboots for the kids. We failed, but managed to grab a big cup of coffee for mom as well as some Jaffa lumps since candy you can't get at home is always fun.
Tonight, we've hired a babysitter to come watch our kids sleep in the hotel room so we can go out to a quiet evening just adults. We'll be going a whole half a block away to a local high-end food court called Elliott Stables, a place I scoped out yesterday and was excited to try.
We got the kids settled, headed out, ate some tasty food, played video games in an arcade, went to a bar and listened to real live Irish music. One of the singers played a pipe as well as a bodhrán. You don't get much more Irish than that. It was fun to feel like real adults and not have to spend all our time dealing with kids.
Tomorrow we hire a rental minivan and drive to Coromandel, where we'll hopefully have a lot more nature-related fun stuff for the next couple days. This is one of the places I'm most excited about on the trip.