Mark and I left Opua on Friday afternoon to sail south to Auckland. I was a fairly simple overnight passage. When we got out of the marina and into the bay we hoisted our headsail that had work done on it a few weeks ago and then headed out. Since the seas were so rough coming in we weren't really sure what we'd be getting on the way out. It was nice to have calm seas but they come with a down side - there wasn't much wind and what we had was off our nose so we motored most of the way. Outside the bay we had some lunch, I went to sleep, we had some dinner, I went back to sleep and then Mark woke me around 3:30am. I had a hard time getting to sleep so Mark stayed up as late as he could for me. I took over and got us the rest of the way down to Auckland. We were a little annoyed when we got outside the marina and no one was answering the VHF. We finally decided after hailing for an hour on our way in that we would just go in find the nearest place to tie up (we were hopping for a fuel dock but no go) and then try calling on the cell phone again. We tied up in front of a cat and on the other side of the finger pier of a maga-sailboat (must be about 120'+ we look like a dwarf next to it). We finally got a hold of the marina manager and he said they don't monitor the radio on the weekends (kinda silly since they knew we were coming). He said we could stay where we are and that the cat behind us should be leaving so we could have power (he's still there).

Once showered, even though we were both tired from the overnight, we decided to go exploring. We started with the Lonely Planet walking tour which led us past a few sites, stores, and more importantly to a row of historic pubs where we got some lunch. Along the way we checked out some electronic and hiking stores (we were looking for extra external hard-drives and tramping packs). We had visited one of these stores in Whangarei a few weeks ago and couldn't believe how expensive camping equipment is here. Now we know why...the entire store was 50% off from now until Christmas. Clearly they boosted the prices way up to be able to do this. After lunch we continued the walking tour hitting a few more stores and then ending up in a park on the hill. Mark took a nap while I took some photos. We decided we wanted to relax before dinner so we walked home stopping at a few more places (we haven't been in a really good shopping local in awhile).

After a rest but no real nap we decided it was dinner time. We are lucky to be docked right in the center of town (it reminds me of being in Boston last year) so there are tons of restaurants just steps away. We picked an italian one and the food was great. I mentioned that I would like to see a movie and while I didn't really mean after dinner we decided to go find a theater anyhow. Along the way we bumped into the theater that was showing the Rocky Horror Picture Show. I wasn't really to keen on the idea but Mark wanted to see it while we are here so we went in just to check when we could get tickets for. The guy told us it was the last night and the show just started. Mark thought we were out of luck but I asked the guy what he had. We quickly purchased the tickets and went in. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was a theatrical production and not the show the other way. It was interesting because the writer of the movie was the narrator for it so it added a little something extra. After this we went home. It was about 12:30 by the time we got to sleep and I had been up about 21 hours and Mark was running on only about 4 hours of sleep.

Today we got up a little late but eventually got ourselves off the boat with the bikes. We stopped for a quick Mexican lunch and Mexicali and then started a 16k (one way) walking tour of the city on our bikes. It took us through most of the major areas of town, a bunch of parks, past museums and monuments, and finally down to the other coast. Only problem - then we had to turn around and come back. Luckily with the iphone we were able to find a quicker, shorter, and flatter way home.

Tip for the day: Credit cards are better protected against theft than ATMs: Most credit card companies will cover the theft for some specified amount of time this is not always true with ATM cards (it depends on your bank). That being said. Check your cards online. The faster you find fraudulent charges the less likely you are to have to pay for them.

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