Schmoose, Connecticut, & Harbor Cruise

Say Hello to Schmoose (sounds like Bruce), a moose in sheep’s clothing. We met Schmoose on the LINK bus that travels around Auckland City proper when we were returning to our hotel after a day at the Auckland Museum and Auckland Domain (sort of Auckland’s Botanical Gardens).

The little we know of Schmoose’s story so far is that he is “on the lam.” From what or who he is running from we’re not exactly sure but we told him he was welcome to travel with us for as long as he’d like.

In other news: We stuck to the plan on Friday with a Harbor tour during the afternoon and a nice dinner to celebrate our birthdays and anniversary. The Harbor tour was a one and a half hour tour that afforded some different views of the city and surrounding area. It also included an additional round trip to the suburb of Devonport which we took advantage of last night. But what I really want to talk about is the dinner we had the other night. Actually, not the dinner so much as the folks who own the restaurant.

The Grove restaurant was one of the four places recommended by the Auckland-based friend of Joanne Weir’s. It is located just five minutes (if that) from our hotel. At our 6 pm reservation time, when the maître d’ showed us to our table, we were the only people in the place – though not for long. The food was absolutely fabulous, and the waiter’s recommendation of a Destiny Bay cabernet from a winery on Waiheke Island (35 min ferry ride from Auckland) was spot on. But real part of this story is that you never know who you are going to meet.

It turned out, the maitre d’ was not only an owner of the restaurant but also born and raised in Connecticut, my home state. Michael Dearth stopped by our table to chat with us for a while and it was during our discussion that we learned was born and raised in Watertown, CT, went to University of New Haven, traveled for 2 years (including in NZ) and finished at Southern Connecticut State University. He met his wife Annette in San Francisco when they were both working there and eventually they settled in Auckland. So like I said, you never know who you’re going to meet.

Last night we took advantage of our extra ferry trip and traveled to Devonport, one of Auckland’s oldest suburbs and walked around the town for a while before getting some fantastic pictures of the sun setting on Auckland. I’ve posted one here is one for your enjoyment.

Today we fly to Invercargill, which is at the very south end of the South Island (see map below). It’s supposed to be a little cooler down there but still a lot warmer than the -50 degrees below zero that my friend Bret reported for Winnipeg, Canada for today.

Cheers!