Herne Bay, Auckland

Packed up and drove to the airport for a speedy car return (surprising!). Off to Auckland on Air New Zealand. We looked into renting a car for our two days in New Zealand’s largest city, but they were too expensive on such short notice. So we got hooked up with a shuttle that took us to our bed and breakfast in Herne Bay (appropriately titled the Herne Bay B&B). It was an interesting B&B. Not so well kept or homey (no individual heating/air-conditioning control for the rooms, no drapes or blinds for the windows, very limited television stationage, no remote, etc.), but the B&B was in a fabulous location for seeing downtown and nearby food joints, and it had this awesome cupola that afforded unparalleled views of the city. We ventured up along Ponsonby & College Road for dinner, where we found a take-away Indian restaurant. We chatted with our Indian immigrant cook, who essentially just heated up pre-made dishes. We took the food back to the apartment and had a nice meal of lamb goush and chiken tikka masala with fresh garlic naan and basmati rice. Very, very tasty.