The weather has been great yesterday, and I enjoyed a good time in Albert Park with a bunch of shirtless students from the nearly university, and my NZ travel guide.

I also managed to get some Japanese Yen, as I realized it might be wise to have at least some local currency before heading north. I heard that only the ATM at the Japanese Post office would take Western style credit cards, and I didn’t want to risk it…

I strolled around downtown a bit, in the newly closed-off pedestrian streets around Fort Street, and later met up with Clint for a beer, in a real NZ Sports bar.

Multi-screens all over the place transmitting the latest horse races, and the results hanging on the walls for the lads to check….

Then, we headed over to a delicious Chinese dumpling place close to K-road. It was one of those places you’d run by without even noticing, and I wouldn’t have stepped in it, a very basic place with a couple of simple tables and chairs, no real counter and NZ Chinese TV on the screens.

However, those are the places to go! The dumplings were fantastic. Hand made, we could watch her do the dough and fill them basically in front of us on a side table… Clint’s room mate Michael also joined in and we had some 80 (!) Dumplings.

Way too much of course, we doggy-bagged them and took them over to Legend, where we watched an episode of Ru Paul’s Drag Race show. I had never really watched it, consciously… it’s crazy, but it was actually fun to see it (in the presence of a real Queen, btw).

Today I slept in, had coffee, and tried on some great second hand shoes. They’re massive, heavy, with real screws, red, oil resistant and NZ made, as claimed on them. I could use them for some hikes to come. They are slightly big though, but I’ll try them on again tomorrow wearing real socks.

New Zealand is all excited about tropical cyclone Lusi, that is moving towards the islands… Everything has been put on hold.

I wanted to go to the Zoo today, but it looked already grey and rainy… Tonight’s outdoor cinema at the Silo Park has been cancelled, as have a number of other outdoor events throughout the weekend.

They expect heavy showers and high wind speeds over the North Island. Hatches down, and probably no stroll over the Harbor beer festival, and no trip to Piha beach on the West coast unfortunately… I might just watch some movies…