Out and about in Auckland City

A few weeks I had the pleasure of spending the day with my dear daughter and we went exploring around the older parts of Auckland City.
Walking around you get to see so much more, all the wonderful old buildings I love this architecture so much.

The first I would like to show you is St Andrews Church and the sky and clouds looked ominous and not long after we got caught in a shower of rain. As you can see the Saint Andrews Cross, The Saltire, flag of Scotland is set in the lead light glass windows

The High Court is a lovely old building and the interesting feature of this, is a Prussian Immigrant Anton Teutenberg decorated the building with gargoyles and they are a glorious example of Gothic grotesque. Though common on churches and cathedrals around Europe they are rarely seen in the Antipodes.

Formerly known as the old Arts building the clock tower was designed by Roy Alston Lippincott.
The clock tower helped define the University's architectural spirit combining traditional elements with local decorative motifs, flax flowers, ponga fronds and Kaka can be found in the stone detailing.
It is also known as The Wedding Cake

The old Auckland Club is a nice old building overgrown with Ivy and often think this looks a little spooky

Lastly I like the lines of this building and the soft muted colours

I hope you have enjoyed seeing a little of the architecture around the older parts of the City.
Thanks for the kind visits to my blog and I look forward to coming over to visit you.
Wishing you a happy week
hugs
Carolyn

A few surprises

When I visited Auckland City on Friday,  with an hour to spare I decided to go for an explore, with my camera.
I never tire of strolling aimlessly around and for all the little surprises that you may get to see

Bringing mid-winter carnival fun to Aotea Square, an Ice Rink has been set up and a family of Polar Bears set the scene, giving an icy winter atmosphere.

The planets are aligned, in the shop window of Louis Vuitton to celebrate the winter Solstice

I love to see the old architecture which is much more interesting than a lot of the modern style office buildings

This day is a journey, this very moment an adventure
~ Rebecca Pavlenska

Today we have a rainy day which is typical of our weather here for winter. Going out to collect the mail this morning, there were two tuis in the trees who were singing loudly and seemed very happy to be playing in the rain.
The years shortest day has been and now we will move towards Spring.
Thanks for dropping by the blog today and hope you are enjoying the week.
Almost the weekend, hope you have a happy one.
hugs
Carolyn

Always great to celebrate a birthday

In the weekend we celebrated our dear daughters birthday.

We booked a table to dine at the Orbit Restaurant, which is up the Sky Tower. Just getting there, started off been problematic ... as we tried to go up in the lift, strong winds were whistling down and would not enable us to go, the door kept opening three times. In the end the attendant beckoned us to try another lift on the other side which seemed to be more sheltered.
Whish! ... up we went at a fast pace, with the speed and air pressure, my ears popped and do not like that feeling.
 

Auckland Harbour bridge in the distance

Perched high in the sky with a birds eye view, looking down over the City of Auckland and  was fun pointing out all the landmarks and tall buildings.

Always like the Metropolis building in the center

 As it was a rainy day the visibility wasn't great but took a few photos to show you. 

Sorry they are not the best,  but sometimes we can't pick the weather and we got to be up in the clouds and see the  rain trickling down the window panes.

the pink road is the new cycle way

Yet another year has flown by
Happy birthday Victoria and best wishes for a great new year ahead
 

Made sure I had room for  dessert - pavlova was delicious

thank you for your kindness in taking the time to visit Victoria's youtube channel - appreciate that.

Hope you enjoyed a wonderful weekend dear friends and now wishing you a happy week ahead. 
hugs
Carolyn