Day Three since our arrival in Auckland was a “free” day, meaning free of any specific plans.

We started once again with that wonderful breakfast downstairs in the Trivet restaurant. Coffee is served in small individual coffee presses containing about two cups each, after which you can work up a good buzz by asking for another round. At home, we normally drink decaf coffee in the morning, so getting a caffeine dose is a travel treat.

A bit later in the morning, we went out on our first reconnoissance walk to check out what’s in the area around our hotel. We walked down Albert Street toward the harbor. There are restaurants and shopping areas in the buildings along this short couple of blocks, and then you’re at the edge of the harbor. Directly across the street are the docks where you can catch ferries to several different locations. We turned left, wandered past a couple of large, relatively new hotels, toward the Maritime Museum and Auckland’s Viaduct Harbor.

We just meandered around for a while taking in the sights, then walked out along one of the long piers, this one with apartment buildings (not sure of condominiums or rentals) overlooking the harbor. It appeared to be tough going for the commercial spaces on the ground floors, with lots of empty storefronts. And we couldn’t get any sense of whether the apartments were popular and filled with residents or not. Somewhere at the end was a Hilton Hotel, which must offer some spectacular views.

This is obviously a touristy area. Souvenir shops competing for customers with bars offering discounted drinks and burgers during afternoon happy hours. We walked past a large Chinese restaurant with a great name worth mentioning—White & Wong’s.

Then we strolled back to the hotel, but popped into a corridor through a building lined with shops. I thought I recalled a sandwich place and, sure enough, we quickly ran into Gloria’s. Just as I recalled, it offers a variety of very good looking sandwiches. We ordered, then walked the short distance back to our hotel to eat.

By this time, we had gotten the tsunami alerts from Hawaii and were monitoring the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center for news. Later in the afternoon, the New Zealand emergency management agencies put out is own advisory, warning that there would be dangerous surges and currents even though a tsunami was not expected.

We went out to walk in a different direction, around the corner and up Queen Street, kind of a central shopping area. The first block is filled with those expensive brands, Prada, Rolex, Louis Vuitton, etc. The places we would never go into.

But by the end of the afternoon, Meda (with a little encouragement) was thinking about shopping for a New Zealand wool sweater. She’s been trying to mend the moth eaten sweater she bought at a thrift store years ago, one moth hole at a time. She figured she will eventually find a nice one in a thrift store, but I encouraged her to get a nice one while we’re here. Now she’s come around in her thinking, and I guess that’s a target for us over the next several days.

I made a mistake suggesting we walk through the Queen’s Arcade, lined with small shops. Among them, Gallery Pacific, a small jewelry store featuring the work of local artists and New Zealand materials. High quality stuff, some of which caught Meda’s eye. I have a feeling that after she finds herself a sweater, we may be paying a return visit to Nick at Gallery Pacific.

We’re apparently surrounded by restaurants that get good customer reviews. But we’re cheapskates and tend not to splurge on restaurants, although we’re not so tight-fisted on other things. Last night I walked up the block to a small food court offering an assortment of cuisines, and returned to our room with a paper bag with a meal from Thai Time. Not excellent, but pretty good.