This is not the best pic, since all I had was my iPhone and not my Nikon, but you get the picture (or you can see professional shots here). It was dusk and the lanterns were just too bright for the little guy to adjust. Albert Park was slam packed with people for this event. A bit too much for me actually, and most of those I went with (fellow nomads of the Red Monkey Manor), so after getting some cheap eats at the food stalls we carried on. I took my band of nomads to what might be my favorite bar so far in Auckland - The Library Bar. I think every decent sized city has a library-themed bar, doesn't it?
So that was Saturday night. Sunday was pretty laid back. Job apps and such. Monday was both Waitangi Day and the Super Bowl. Waitangi Day is the closest thing that New Zealand has to an Independence Day, even though it celebrates the signing of the treaty that brought New Zealand into the British Empire in 1840, not the day that New Zealand became independent (because there isn't one - seriously, check it out). Everyone gets a day off, in this case another long weekend, but other than that it's apparently not really a big deal. However, since it coincided with the Super Bowl this year, it ensured that there were a hell of a lot more Kiwis than usual in the bars watching the big game with the Americans. They seemed to really enjoy it, especially the second half. And might I add, without the commercials. This missing element had to be explained repeatedly, as we were watching on international ESPN, and all they showed were the same in-house ads for upcoming sporting events over and over and over, interspersed with the same 15 second Avengers ad over and over and over. The upside was that everyone could actually go to the bathroom without missing anything. We watched at O'Hagan's on the waterfront.
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