Cyclone Gabriel was the worst storm to hit New Zealand in a century. A National State of Emergency was declared for only the third time in New Zealand's history. This was serious enough for us to modify our travel plans, loosing some money in the process, but making sure we were in a safe location and that we were in the location we needed to be when the storm passed. That said we weathered the storm rather easily. Perhaps the category 3 and category 4 storms of Florida of the past had hardened us. Perhaps we just got lucky with the location that we sheltered in, but we stayed inside, ate the food we purchased pre-storm and waited patiently for it to pass. Auckland was within a few miles of the eye of this storm but the infrastructure and local topography allowed us to get through the storm without incident. Not the same can be said for much of the country, entire towns are cut off, lives have been lost and huge areas have been flooded. We are off to Spain via Dubai tomorrow and we have loved our sojourn through New Zealand and wish the people the best of luck with the recovery. We were able to get out and walk on Tuesday afternoon. Wednesday was clear and sunny and we got out again. We sat and watched a taped performance of a haka from a park area. We ordered some drinks and watched the Aucklanders walk by, happy to be outside.
If you look closely you see all of New Zealand in the lower half of the picture. This is a very large storm with a huge amount of moisture carried along with it
Sheets of rain
We saw some sandbags when we emerged
Drains kept clear
There were branches and leaves all around the sidewalks
We love free pickles!
Pretty wall on the downstairs restaurant. We ordered food to last us two days
Udon noodles and tempura, what a deal!
In the haka the facial expressions are exaggerated
The exaggerated expressions show fierceness
These chin tattoos signify status and achievement
I would be intimidated if I saw these guys!
The singing part was very nice
It was a large performance
With choreography as well
The open area that had the taka show on a big screen
Great details on the large art piece
A funky light fixture at a bar we had hoped to stop at but they were closing in 20 minutes so we continued on down the road
Our stop for refreshments
