2nd Day in Auckland

Maori exhibit at Auckland War Memorial Museum

Ferry to the little town of Devonport, across the harbour from Auckland

We heard a very interesting talk from a 50 year old Maori man, who greeted us in the Maori language but also speaks perfect English. The Maori people arrived in New Zealand from unspecified Polynesian Islands sometime around 1250 AD and had the place to themselves until the Europeans arrived in the 1600s. Today about 14% of New Zealand's 3.8 million people are of Maori descent. The Maoris enjoy a much better relationship with the other New Zealanders than our Native Americans have in the United States.

After his talk, we toured an excellent Maori exhibit at the Auckland War Memorial Museum.

It was a picture-perfect day, and we took a ferry across the bay to the little town of Devonport with its shops and restaurants. Back in the evening for a picnic supper in nearby Albert Park (as in Queen Victoria and Prince Albert).

We leave tomorrow morning for Rotorua.

Group photo with Maori man, Prince Davis (6th from the left), in front of a 400 year old tree