[update: added panorama]
Auckland reminds us of San Francisco; it’s very hilly and dense with good public transport. There are lots of posh (or “flash” as they say here) areas with fancy boutiques. 
We started today with a trip to the Auckland Domain (domain being a general term for “park” here), which appears to be the largest park in the city. 
After passing through a nice little duck pond area and a fantastic greenhouse complex (with “fernery”), we ended up at the Auckland Museum, housed in a massive war memorial building on a hilltop that overlooks the park and the city. The museum inside was really quite exceptional and well worth the trip. They have a Maori cultural show that describes the songs, dances and weapons of the Maori people, and while it was great to see we’re looking forward to seeing more on Monday and Tuesday as we get to Rotorua and beyond.
We rode over to Karangahape Road (aka K Road) and walked that and Ponsonby Road — two main drags full of little stores. Then it was back to the hotel for some orthopedic decompression before continuing into the evening.
Back at the hotel, Chris got online and was able to figure out the Auckland bus system sufficiently so that we could get to Mount Eden. These trips … you quickly become so familiar with the transit system, and so dependent on it; it’s a real shame that Atlanta recently shut down its own Tourist Loop bus. Anyway, a short bus ride and we were at the base of Mount Eden, and after some huffing up a trail, we were at the top, along with all the people who had driven up. Mount Eden is an old dormant volcano, practically in the middle of Auckland, and in the huge crater at the peak were … five head of cattle. Also at the bottom along with the cows was the equivalent of farmland graffiti; cowpies spelling out the names of people who’d managed to collect them and arrange them way down there. By this time the skies had cleared and we had late afternoon sunshine for the first time, so it made for some spectacular views up there.
Here is Chris’s first attempt at shooting a panorama. Click to enlarge, although it won’t get big enough to really appreciate, and these are kind of low-res panoramas anyway. This is the view, all the way around, from the top of Mount Eden. We need to crop those tour busses out, that’s kind of a mood killer, no?
Then we headed back into downtown and wandered through Albert Park, where the annual Lantern Festival was in full swing. 
Chinese performances, chinese food, chinese trinkets, and huge throngs of people. There was also a symphony performance in the main park and we watched the fireworks from our hotel balcony.
Tonight we have our last night of a real bed. Tomorrow we go on to the campervan rental, Foodtown for groceries, and lots of anxiety about driving on the “wrong” side of the road. And unknown access to the internet …