The Land Down-Over

Thursday, Dec 27th
Sun, high clouds, 75°

We arrived this morning, later than we had expected, due to a cancellation of the flight that would get us to the west coast to make our connection on Christmas Day. Instead of seeing San Francisco’s new international terminal, we, after some wrangling had the opportunity to visit Los Angeles terminal instead. In hindsight the Philadelphia airport doesn’t look all that bad. Twelve hours is a lot of time to be doing anything, especially looking at the seat back in front of me. Tedious, yet uneventful as fights should be.
When we were the last two standing at the baggage carousel, we new that we were truly blessed, by the spirit of holiday travel. It seems the spirit failed to put our luggage on the plane. Good times.
Auckland is a bustling city; we strolled down to the Victoria Park, from our accommodations in the Posonby District, trendy, and with plenty of dining options for tonight. We continued to the waterfront and Ferry Terminal areas, which then led us uphill to our eventual destination of Albert Park.
This is a really wonderful city park established in the 1800’s by the British Parks Department. Some of the specimens are colossal, the bedding schemes Victorian and a bit predictable in terms of layout, but the color blends and palette of the beds reveal that somebody there knows plants and how to display them. But mostly, people. In the park sitting, strolling, running, napping. Using this wonderful urban green space.
I must apologize for not having any images to accompany this post. My cables to do this are packed neatly next to my hiking boots under my shower bag in my duffel, you get the idea.