Last Hurrah: Tiritiri Matangi Island and St Patrick's Day in Auckland

After five depressing days in Auckland trying and failing to sell our car while we had the best weather of the entire trip taunting us, we finally sold Larry on Friday. We immediately got tickets to Tiritiri Matangi Island, a bird sanctuary on an offshore island about an hour by boat from Auckland. The wind was high and the sea was up on our trip out, resulting in a lot of sick passengers, but we were far from ill and had a nice ride out to the island. We opted for a lackluster guided tour for the first 90 minutes or so, had lunch near the lighthouse, and then wandered around the island on our own for a few hours. We spotted all the birds the island had to offer, save the kiwi and blue penguins which you can only see at night. We even saw two pairs of kokako, a super-rare blue bird with a haunting call. The "we thought these were extinct" takahe hung out near the visitor center, and one is even an opportunistic food thief. We saw saddlebacks aplenty, hihi/stitchbirds (they only exist on 3 offshore islands), whiteheads, bellbirds, tui, fantails, pukeko, parrots, and ducks. After leaving the stream-of-consciousness chatter of our fellow tour folk, we got to listen to the woods and the constant chatter of birds. Very cool. Tiritiri is highly recommended to those who might venture down here--book in advance and you can stay overnight and see the penguins and listen to the kiwi.

The rain held off, though we could see if off the coast and the wind was blowing it right to us. Somehow we stayed dry (other than that spray wave that soaked Hilary head to toe on the boat) and after washing up, went down to the nearest (and very crowded) Irish bar for St Patrick's Day. We got (really cold) Guinness and some beef stew, very tasty. The cold beer is a bit of a sin, but everywhere in NZ seems to pour Guinness near freezing. You'd think the English Isles heritage would have taught them how to pour a beer... Anyway, we left that bar after our beer and stew since the band was playing only songs from a high school dance. And not just any high school, our high school i.e. mid 90's "lite rock" stuff. Not bad songs per se, but the lack of diversity was annoying.

We walked down the street to the Windsor Castle, a less Irish place but one that had a band with a broader understanding of music. We got another (super cold) Guinness and some fish & chips. Yum. After that we headed back to our last night in Auckland and NZ.

This morning we jammed our bags full of all our worldly possessions, and now it's just a few hours until we catch our bus to the airport. Crazy that it's all over.