Auckland, New Zealand

Well, it started to rain last night and by the middle of the night it was a full-blown storm which continued into the morning. Our skydiving was cancelled, obviously. They told us to call back in the afternoon, but the cloud cover was still too thick. So, we hope for tomorrow.

We went off to the museum which is also the War Memorial - beautiful building in the Auckland Domain, a large park. We wandered around, but were really interested in a special exhibit called “Secrets”. The museum brought out objects from their collection that had been stored for years…they were arranged either in our around their packing crates. It was fascinating and beautifully organized and arranged. The collection was a mix of what you might find at the Met in NY and the Smithsonian in Washington combined and ran the gamut from ethnic pieces to stuffed birds!

The rain did not let up and so we drove out to Titirangi, in the western suburbs, a trendy little town with superb views, which were invisible because of the weather. We had lunch in a café and then drove back.

Went to David and Karen’s in Parnell, a beautiful area of gorgeous homes, restaurants and art galleries. They have cruised with Ross, Jan and Layne before and are coming with us in 2010. They have a stunning contemporary home in beautiful gardens. We toasted Christmas with champagne and that sat down to a lovely supper and home-made Christmas cake –very fruity and loaded with brandy!!!

On our way home, we drove through various suburbs to see some of Ross’ Christmas installations. Christmas lights are still rare here, except on Franklin Road of course. On one of the streets, only two houses had lights – Ross’ work. Quite different from what we see in the US.

This is the beautiful stained-glass ceiling in the World War I Sanctuary of the Museum. It shows the coats of arms of all British dominions and colonies during that war.