doddling around: Last Day in Queenstown

Morning in Auckland

We got to sleep in this morning, which was nice. We also re-packed our luggage since there are only a few days left and we wanted to optimize for the remaining days and the flight to Auckland.

I have been bandaging my sandfly bites because they are right on my ankles where socks, shoes, and hems rub at them. I got to the last ones this morning and am so thankful that Mike packed so many. Thanks for the band-aids, Mike!

The bites are a bit upsetting, so it was decided I shouldn't post the photos of my apparently plague-ridden leg.

We checked-out of the hotel and drove up the hill to the Kiwi Birdlife Centre. Everything is really close together, but we decided to take the car out of the hotel lot and keep it closer to us throughout the day.

We caught the kiwi feeding in one of their 2 nocturnal kiwi houses, but no photos were allowed so I can't show you that. They had a breeding pair in one kiwi house, and a 2 month old in the other.

The rest of the park was aviaries, ponds, a reptile house, and some Maori exhibits. The audio tour was pretty thorough and had info on all the animals as well as a bunch of the native plants. So many of the animals we saw were some level of threatened or extinct in the wild. It was sad but also really nice to learn about all the conservation efforts that are making an impact.

Spot the Tuatara

There he is!

Auckland Green Gecko -- I really wanted him to open his mouth so I could see the blue inside

Morepork Owl

Kea -- I've been waiting to spot one but locals say it's too warm for them right now. The Kea is the world's only alpine parrot. They're super clever. They aren't very colorful, but there's some bright red on the underside of their wings. Every time we read an informational sign about the Kea they are described as "cheeky."

Yellow-crowned parakeet (Kakariki)

New Zealand Falcon -- this one was rescued after being hit by a car; one of his wings doesn't work

Rainbow trout

Tui -- I spent a lot of time trying to get a good picture of the two tufts on his neck.

Better shot of the blue, but obscured neck tufts

Antipodes parakeet

New Zealand pigeon, NZ's largest flighted forest bird, and a Red-crowned parakeet (Kakariki) taking flight

Random Pukeko just hanging out on the path

Lazy Afternoon

Then it was 2 pm and we had nothing to do for another few hours. We parked downtown and wandered the streets. I really like how concentrated things are downtown. It's totally a tourist town and this shopping and eating district is the center of it. There are also more tourist information "stores" than I've ever seen on one block before. We decided we were probably hungry enough for lunch, so we went to Flame, which the desk agent at Skyline had recommended yesterday as a "local secret for burgers."

Great view at Flame

We split an order of ribs and a burger.

Bloody Mary and a really good ginger beer with zero artificial anything

Ribs and a Sunny Burger (bacon, cheese, and a sunny-side up egg)

Then we were finished. We felt pretty finished with Queenstown. I like it, but there isn't really anything you can do with 2 hours. Mostly, Queenstown is about adrenaline or hiking, and those are things that take bookings or time, so we just headed toward the airport.

Goodbye, Queenstown

This is the airport -- the whole airport, pretty much.

Ok, so the airport also has the check-in desks and a couple stores that are behind me, but this is pretty much the airport.

The sun went down

NZ628 ZQN to AKL

We got to use the mobile stairway again

Orion

Coming in to land at AKL

After we got our bags, we were going to take a taxi but saw a Super Shuttle, which, just like at SFO, is cheaper because it's ride sharing. We only had two other stops before us, so it's not as though it took that much longer.

Checking-in at the Sebel was really quick.