I woke up nice and early, ready to take advantage of the fee pancakes for breakfast. When I got to the kitchen, I discovered that the way this worked was that there was a huge tub of pancake mix ready to cook, and we cooked it ourselves.
The first person I noticed dng this, seemed to be cooking them to blackened, so I endeavoured to avoid that fate for my pancakes!
We were also supplied with lemon juice, sugar, and maple syrup so we could adorn the pancakes with whatever took our fancy. I have to say that mine were delicious!
My plan for the day had been to go to the museums, however, looking outside, the skies were blue and the sun was really bright, so I made a last minute change, and checked the map for some outdoor things to be doing. As I did this, I got message from betsy about when we would meet for lunch, ich was perfect timing, as I had just found a nice high viewpoint to go to to get some nice views
I first headed to Mount Victoria (known as Mount Vic by the locals), and almost went the wrong way as I reached the pedestrian path. Once I reached the top, I had to put on my jacket, as there was a brisk southerly wind (straight from Antarctica!) which was pretty cold! I enjoyed reading the signs that showed the history of the creation of the North Island (as per Mauri folklore), as it made more sense seing with the images there to show the fish shapes.
On my way down, a Tui got very close to me, probably because I had by this time packed my camera away, and despite waiting for a while after there was no new opportunities before I had to make a beeline to Munchen to meet Betsy
I got there just in time, and we took the ubiquitous selfie. We were pretty boring with the meal chouices, both of us going for burgers!
Betsy advised me that the street she works on (Quay) used to be the sea front, but due to tectonic activity, the sea bed had raised and it was now further inland.
My next port of call was the botanic gardens, and thanks to local knowledge imparted to me by my spod friend of 20 or so years, I took the cable car up to the top.
The botanic gardens themselves are pretty big, and I found myself getting lost in the paths multiple times while exploring them, despite having a map!