Mount Eden, the Winter Gardens, and the camper van dilemma

Saturday, February 3, 2018
   
   We begin the weekend by waking up at 3:30 am NZ time (which means we really slept to 9:30 am on Eastern time), after crashing last night due to travel and first day excitement exhaustion.  Morgan woke up with camper vans on her mind, since yesterday we fell in love with both young couples selling their vans (or at least I did) and couldn't decide which one to buy (Morgan but also me since I didn't want to disappoint either couple).  Morgan had test driven both vans with the guys, while I helped their girlfriends learn English ( I taught the French Canadian girl the words, "bathing suit."  She gave me a good clue with, "what is this thing for swimming purposes?").  After consulting via Google Hangouts with Dad at 4:00 am (ok so it was 10:00 am for him lest you think we were being really cruel), Morgan made up her mind, while I worried about how to break the news to the French Canadians that we were gong to pass on the van they needed to sell before returning to Canada, instead going with the van being sold by the 19 year-old teenagers from Germany.  Funny thing, my next thought was how we are going to transfer the equivalent of almost $6,000 US to the teenagers when we bought their van on a weekend with the bank possibly closing early (cashier's check was my thought), but Morgan was smart enough to ask the teenagers, who had the modern day answer (online bank wire transfer).  I really should get out more.  I mean, when teenagers who don't speak much English have to explain to me how to transfer money. . . .

   After calling around to arrange a pre-purchase mechanical inspection for tomorrow and cooking breakfast in the flat, we headed out via our rental car to Mount Eden summit, just a two-mile drive away, where we walked the rim of an extinct

volcano crater, and saw some awesome views of Auckland and its harbor and bays.  We then went to a place called the Auckland Domain, which has a world-class museum (we didn't visit it this time since it would take all day to visit the galleries it holds, but we plan to go back).  We visited the gardens there, which were very beautiful.  We saw many exotic trees and plants, including the apparently exotic Croton tree.  Who knew this was an exotic plant?  Not me, since we have two of them in our front yard back home.  I saddle them with Christmas lights every December.  Maybe I should give them more respect.

   We ate lunch at the Winter Gardens Cafe on the property (another winning meal - corn fritters with red beet hummus), then headed back to the flat, where we are now resting up for an adventure tonight to the Saturday night farmers market here in Auckland.  It rained on and off all day and it's raining now, but these markets run rain and shine, and what's a little weather when you're experiencing an adventure on the other side of the world?