Left, left, left...

Wonder what I'm talking about? Driving on the left side of the road! I just got back from a "major" excursion to the Auckland War Memorial Museum, grocery store and gas station and made it home safely. Whew! No mean feat, let me tell you. My mantra is "left, left, left" and I can't even drive with the radio on. No distractions. It's one thing to be on a highway, another thing altogether driving around town. It feels so peculiar to work a manual shift with my left hand. As if I didn't have enough to concentrate on!

No pix today, just wanted to share some observations about Auckland. I figured it's time I actually "blogged" and bored you with some musings.

You've heard the raves about the nature here and it's all true. However, not enough credit is given to man-made institutions, like museums (which are free, by the way). The one I mentioned above is a fantastic 80 year-old majestic building atop a bluff in the Domain (huge, green park). The view from there is astounding--you can see the entire bay with numerous islands.

The museum has the most interesting and well-displayed collections illustrating the diverse cultures of Pacific communities, many of which I've never heard of. Weapons, masks, hats, wigs, clothes, paddles, jewelry, baskets, tools--an absolutely amazing array of every day items.

The other spectacular exhibit was the Maori Court which is huge and has the world's largest collection of taonga (Maori treasures), including a huge carved boat and meeting house.

I have been to the museum twice and am taking is slow and doing only a few exhibits each time--there's so much to see. So far, I've only covered the bottom floor--two more to go. I will try and take pictures next time and add them.

Another fabulous museum is the Auckland Art Gallery. Unfortunately, the 135-year old building is being renovated and won't be open until 2011. So they've housed a small portion of the collection in a temporary building across the street and it's terrific: contemporary kiwi art and special collections. I stumbled upon a week-long special preview of 5 Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings donated by Josie and Julian Robinson of NYC. Again, free. What a country!

I'm lucky that the selection of gym classes are quite varied. So far I've attended 3 different step classes and today I went to one called TKO (Technical Knock Out) aka kick boxing. I've been going to kick boxing in Israel for 8 years and this was the first time somewhere else. Don't tell George, my favorite teacher in Haifa, that Brent was terrific. I'm going to go to his Zumba class, too. Uh oh. I may have a new favorite teacher. I'm very fickle.

And the library...I've already told you how much I love libraries and it thrills me to see the Auckland one so crowded, especially with young people. They have free wireless internet and it's a real gathering place for everyone to sit at tables or on the floors with their computers. The staff is so helpful. Today I was interested in kiwi authors and the librarian walked me around the literature section, pointing out books that were her favorite reads. Sooooo nice.

I can't believe the friendly and helpful nature of people here. They smile at you on the street, go out of their way to help with directions, chat with you at a drop of a hat. It's just so EASY.

Thanks for listening. You may go now.