Written on and regarding Saturday, June 16, 2007; posted June 18, 2007 @ 5:06 PM

We completely slept in this morning. We were in bed by 8:00 last night and asleep by about 8:30. Both of us woke up at about 4:00 in the morning. I stayed awake for quite a long time before falling back to sleep…until 11:30! I haven’t slept that late in, like, ever!

Anyway, our reservations at Orbit were for 1:00, so we got moving and were there about 20 minutes early. We got to wander around the observation deck (and I took some pictures) before heading up to the restaurant. While there, we ran into Lamar and Billy, dad and brother of one of Adam’s B1-mates, so after we were all done eating, we went back down to the observation deck for another wander around. There we saw a wonderful exhibit of photos of Mohammed Ali dating back to 1963, I think was the oldest one. Great collection of pictures.

We all decided to walk over to St. Benedict’s, where the boys were rehearsing. We didn’t stay there long, just while they warmed up, and then the men sang one song. It’s a beautiful church, one mile exactly from our hotel, built in the mid 1800s. The cathedral congregation is having Mass there while the cathedral is being renovated.

Lamar and Billy walked back toward our respective hotels and split off to find out what time the movie started. Mom and I walked back to the hotel for a pit stop and then walked 15 minutes down Queen Street to the harbor and the ferry building. We’d just missed the ferry to Devonport, but there was another one in 30 minutes, so we got coffee from the vendor and a muffin and sat and read New Zealand women’s magazines.

Once over in Devonport, we wandered up what appeared to be the main street, but all the shops were closed already. It was 5:30 by then and dark as it’s winter here. We looked in the windows all up the street and then found a restaurant that looked nice. We stopped in for some refreshment. I got a bowl of tomato lentil soup with wholemeal grain toast–delicious and perfect for a winter day. Paired with a nice glass of New Zealand Chardonnay, it was a nice light dinner.

After we finished, we walked back to the ferry and got there just in time to catch the boat back to Auckland. Then we walked the 15 minutes back to the hotel and called it a day.