Day 195-200 Auckland, NEW ZEALAND

Friends and Family Time

We landed in Auckland around 1am and we were surprisingly awake. The flight with Air New Zealand was refreshing due to little things like blankets and entertainment systems. At the airport, we had to show our hiking shoes to customs, but they let us through without any issues, as I had cleaned them before going to Australia. After coming home, we were up until 4am, chatting with the in laws.

Over the next couple of days, we got to visit family and friends all around Auckland. To counteract all the excess food we were eating, we decided to go for walks on an almost daily basis along the various trails in the area. Some of the trails are only accessible during low tide so was a bit hit and miss depending on the time of day we got out of the house.

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Then we had the main event, which was the reason we detoured our trip back to Auckland. The Wedding. On the day of the function we arrived for a lunch time catch up with the bride to be (who was technically married, so I guess just bride). We ended up leaving with some tasty packaged lunch. We then proceeded to our first traditional Muslim wedding later that night. The main difference, we that the guys and girls were in separate halls for the first half of the function, and then we were allowed to mingle after dinner. It was interesting to see another culture and there was plenty of tasty food. It was also nice to suit up after so long!

The next day we prepared for the final event of the wedding, hosted by the groom, which was essentially a reception. We were able to catch up with more friends and the event itself was great.

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On the following day we went to Cornwall Park and did a lap around One Tree Hill. It was a beautiful day so the park was full of people running, walking, or chilling with their families at the park. All in all, a few good solid days of relaxing.

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