After arriving back at the hotel we freshen up and pickup the car from the concierge.

Then off we go to Torbay to visit my stepfather Derek.  He has recently moved from Glen Innes to Torbay, much to everyone’s relief.  It took a bit of organizing as he and Gwen had lived in the old place for a great many years.

So we head over the Auckland Harbour Bridge and onto the Northern Motorway. Of course we don’t have a map that goes out as far as Torbay so it will be a matter of winging it.  Never mind I tell Val there will be plenty of signs.  Ha, they don’t mention suburbs on the turnoffs only street names and as we had know idea of what the street names were to go to Torbay we were a little perplexed.

We do have a general idea of where to go and sure enough we find the main street after turning off at the suburb before.  A few inquiries at the Gas Station and we are heading towards Derek’s street.

There is a pleasant surprise when we arrive as Gavin, my brother and his son Hayden, whom we haven’t seen since he was a toddler, are both visiting as well.

Later in the evening Derek phones my sister Laura and we head over to her place, which is quite near Derek’s.

Laura sells real estate for a living. Her eldest son Broden came to stay with me in Canberra a couple of years ago and he is thinking of going to work in the mines in Perth. Her other sons, Vaughan and Devon are still at school and are both really nice kids.

Broden has to bend down to fit in the picture as he is around 6′ 7″. Even bending down he towers over me.

During other visits to Auckland we never seemed to get the time to go to the Aquarium.  This time I was determined to go as the encounter had been recommended by a number of friends who had been and as we had puchased a combined Pass for the Skytower, Kelly Tarlton’s Underwater World and  Rainbow world for $69.00 each  we decided to take full advantage of the savings as against when the tickets are purchased separately.

There is a free shuttle bus every hour on the hour from 9am-4pm that leaves from just outside the Sky City entrance so we waited with a few others who were also going and sure enough the bus arrived on time to take us on a the pictuesque drive along the Auckland city waterfront.

Kelly Tarlton’s is only a  10 minute drive or six kilometres (3.7 miles) from downtown Auckland and is situated at 23 Tamaki Drive, Orakei.  If you choose to drive yourself there is free carparking is available both in the Kelly Tarlton’s carpark and on Tamaki Drive.

We walk down the ramp and through the Antarctic Encounter, where  there is a life-sized replica hut of South Pole explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott.   The displays show exactly how the men lived in the bleak conditions in the Antartic.

Not being a fan of freezing weather I can only marvel at the fortitude of how these men existed in the icy conditions. There is lots of fascinating information about both Scott and his men.

Scott spent 12 preparing for the journey to the South Pole only to find the his rival Amundsen had beaten him by a month.  Having not factored any margin for errors or delays into his plan meant that when the team sustained injuries, malnutrition, frostbite and exhaustion they were ill prepared for storms they encountered on the way back to base.  The team succumbed to the cold and perished 11 miles from the supply depot.

When you come out of the hut there is so much to see so the first thing is to board the Antartic snowcat that takes you  into a world of ice and snow where there is a colony of sub-Antarctic Penguins.  We were lucky enough to see one of the chicks still covered in grey downy feathers, not yet having taken on the sleek black and white plumage of it’s parents.

The snowcat bounces you about as if you were going over rough terrain and there is a large glassed area where you get a fish eye view of the penguins swimming underwater.

After coming out of the penguin enclosure we pass by the sting ray pool.  A young lady is going to feed the sting rays and so we sit down to watch and listen to the commentary.  She informs us that she has only done this twice before and she is still a little nervous performing in front of the public. We assure her that everything is fine after all she is the one in the pool with all of the facts.

Watching these giant but graceful creatures brings back memories of Steve Irwin’s (the Crocodile Hunter) demise from the barb of a sting ray.

The people mover is being repaired on the day we visit so we meander along the walkway under the large perspex dome where sharks, grouper and an assortment of other fish swim lazily through the water above and on either side of us.

We make our way outside to find we have just missed the bus so rather than wait another hour we catch a taxi back to Karangahape Rd. From here we stroll along the main shopping road of our childhood, and my how the shops have changed. There are lots of Asian and Indian food shops and all the large department stores and picture theatres that we knew have gone. The Family and Naval Hotel is still there and boy do I have some family tales I could tell about that at a later date.

We turn into Upper Queen St and head back to the hotel to pick up the car and go to Torbay to visit my stepfather.

After we had finished looking around the museum we strolled down to the Botanical gardens.  This has been a favourite place of mine since I was a child.

There is nothing quite like strolling through gardens with the sound of running water and just taking in the beauty of the surroundings. The fine misty spray is cooling and refreshing as you walk under the ferns hanging in large baskets from the ceiling.

The oval pool between the hot house and the cool house has large multicoloured carp swimming lazily through the sun streaked water without a care in the world.

All too soon our visit comes to an end and off to Kelly Tarlto’s Antarctic Encounter at Orakei. We have had a lovely day taking our time and enjoying the experience.

The visit to the museum and the gardens is very reasonably priced, the entrance fee is a $5 donation and it only cost $23 for 2 adults plus the cultural show for 1 adult.

On Sunday we decided to go to visit the Auckland War Memorial Museum.  I particularly wanted to take in the Maori Cultural show, and Val wanted to revisit the war section.

I have always loved Maori music and culture and when I was growing up I admired my Maori girlfriends their musical talent and dexterity with the poi.

So I booked my ticket and we filled in time by visiting the Polynesian, Maori and Early Childhood  exhibits.  The latter brought back many memories of school days.  When we were at school  in the 1950′s all children were given milk to drink at playtime.  The bottles of milk were delivered to the school in crates and sat in a large box structure until it was time to be given to the kids.  I hated milk and more so as it was generally warm, Val on the other hand loved milk and would often try to get more than his alloction of one bottle.

The school dental nurse was a free service provided for all children. The dental room was commonly referred to as “The Murder House” and the dental nurse that we had at Newton Central was none to gentle.  Everyone dreaded the time when they would be called up for a dental check up.

I am sure that she was simply practising because even if you didn’t have any problems you still ended up with a mouth full of dental amalgam which is  a silver colored material used to fill teeth that have cavities that is made up of equal parts of a powder containing silver, tin,copper, zinc and other metals and liquid mercury. 

Dental amalgam has been in use for  over a hundred years because not only is it strong and durable, it is also a relatively inexpensive material but there have been some concerns about its use and there is ongoing research into whether or not mercury fillings are a health hazard.

Once we left primary school we thought we were made. The dental clinic at Kowhai had an electric operated drill whereas the one at Newton Central had been  a pedal operated foot drill.  I was lucky my mother took me to a private dentist so I no longer had to endure the school dentist, and my wonderful dentist had all the very latest in equipment.

Enid Blyton was a popular author of childrens books although she has since fallen foul of the politically correct brigade.  Almost every child had a golliwog, another toy that has fallen from grace.  My father made me a golly out of sacking that he had hand knotted with in  wool.  it had a bright red waistcoat, blue pants and was stuffed with kapok to give a rounded shape. I treasured that golly which unfortunately was lost some years ago.  So it was with pleasure that we saw both the books and the golliwogs in the museum.

Here is another old time favourite, Little Black Sambo.

Once you left primary school and went to high school the girls had to wear the regulation gym slip with white blouse, school tie, black bloomers, black stockings and heavy black lace up shoes.

 Check out the size of those bloomers behind the cricket bat.

The boys wore the school uniform with a tie, knee high socks that had to be kept in place with an elastic band so they didn’t fall down and black lace up shoes.