NZ and AUS, day 7: in which we arrive in Aukland to stay for a few days

Brent and I had a slow-moving morning.  Around 11, we headed for the airport to return the rental car, eat lunch, and fly to Aukland.  That all went smoothly and we arrived at our new hotel around 4.  Here is a view from our room:

Here’s a view out one of the light wells in the hallway:

 

The area where we are staying is full of swanky shops, oddly vacant store fronts, construction, nightclubs, and restaurants.  It’s an interesting mix.  Here is a fountain near our hotel that increases how much water spouts up based on traffic.  A very confused seagull set off this particular spray pattern:

 

We had our best dinner so far at an Italian restaurant a short walk from the hotel.  I liked this upscale version of the old candle-in-Chianti-bottle look from the Italian restaurants of my childhood:

 

After dinner, we came back to the hotel, which has a guests-only lounge called The Libraries.  It looks like this:

 

I tried a New Zealand single malt and Brent tried a local butterscotch liqueur.  We’re heading to bed early-ish so that we can adventure more tomorrow.