We slept in a bit this morning. When we got downstairs we were alone — Graeme and Robin were both gone for the day. Sue made breakfast. I sent Brian a text — offered that he could join me at 10:30 to watch the Packers – Cowboys game on our TV.
At around 11 the Funks showed up. Sue and Val went to the grocery store a block away to buy sandwiches for lunch. The boys sat in the house and watched football. The game started poorly for Dallas but they fought back and tied the game, only to lose it on a last second field goal. The girls left to go for a long walk into the city centre after lunch. Graeme came to join us for lunch before going back to work at his son’s custom boat building shop. Robin was babysitting 2 of her grandchildren.
After the game we sat around a bit. I suggested we go for a short walk before the girls returned from theirs. We walked around the waterfront, looked at some of the restaurants. When we got back to the house Robin was back, and the girls were still not back. When they returned we sat at the table for a while.
The Funks were discussing options for themselves — they have 2 weeks left and still want to see the south island and the area north of Auckland. I was a little uptight about our own plans: if we didn’t find an apartment around here today, we’d better have a plan — and find something down the road for the next part of our trip.
When the Funks left to go back to their B&B, Sue and I got ready to go into town to see what we could find. At the last minute we asked Robin, our host, whether we might stay in the ‘attached’ studio apartment behind their house. The current renter has lived there for the past 6 years, but is moving out this Thursday. Robin gave us a quick tour of the apartment — quite messy, but the guy is in the middle of ‘cleaning up’ and moving out — and it looked like it would suit us perfectly. When we asked about a weekly rate Robin’s price was VERY attractive. But the room we’re in now has been booked by other guests for Tuesday to Thursday, and so we need to make alternate arrangements for the until Friday. Should we go into town? Sue suggested we sit down and check online. And we found something and booked it. And then we texted Funks, asked them to pick us up at 7 and we’d all go for supper at a downtown pub.
We had happy hour with our hosts until the Funks showed up just before 7. We all piled into the CRV and rode into town. The Funks had also had a ‘family meeting’ and reported that they were no longer intending to go to the south island. They will go down to Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand located at the southern tip of the north island, and then turn around and follow the west coast up to the northern tip of the north island. They’d decided that with only 2 weeks left, going to the south island would be just too much driving and not enough ‘seeing’.
We found the Irish Rose Pub in the city centre. Luckily for us it was ‘Quiz Night’. So we entered the ‘Funkenstein’ team into the competition and played along while we had our pizzas and Guinnesses. Fun times. We didn’t win, but we didn’t come in last either.
The Funks chauffeured us home at around 9:40. We sat in our room and read the news and watched some youtube videos. At around 11:30 we went to bed.