A low of 20 degrees in Auckland tonight!

For those of you struggling with the snow back in Kansas, all I can say is that I feel sorry for you. That 20 degree low here is really 68 degrees fahrenheit. Not too shabby at all. We're all still trying to get used to the weather forcasts in celsius. Today was another medicine-free day for me. I had my second MRSA test and I'm just hoping they are all negative because having nobody to hang out with all day isn't as great as it sounds. The good news is that it takes a few days to culture the MRSA so the soonest I can work is Monday, assuming everything is negative.
So after getting my test done early this morning I spent most of the rest of the day walking around and seeing new sights in the city. I started off down by the bay where I found the biggest rubber duck you'll ever see

I also found a bunch of cool restaurants in the area around the giant duck. I think we might check them out for lunch tomorrow because Kayla has the day off and Mary said she'll probably be done with work by noon because she's on radiology. After I got bored with the duck and restaurants, I wandered back towards Queen St. (the main drag in downtown) and grabbed a kabob for lunch- not a shish kabob but the sandwich kind of kabob. Before coming here I didn't even know there was a difference... I knew this was going to be educational. Here's a half-eaten kabob below---

After lunch I headed west and found a really cool park right next to the University of Auckland. Here are some pictures...

 This tree reminded me of a fake one at Disney World or some other place like that. It was pretty impressive

This is random but I found a Pita Pit here. Reminds me of college.

My next stop was to a park area called Auckland Domain. It had a bunch of winding walking trails, gardens and a museum. I really wanted to check out the museum but it cost $25 for a tour and I was too cheap go for it. Maybe somebody else can go with me and it would be more fun.

 They have these crazy trees that line both sides of the walking trails. Again, I have no idea what kind they are.

 One of the gardens in Auckland Domain.

 A closer shot of some of the flowers and pond.

The front of the Auckland Museum. It was impressive and overpriced.
The last exciting activity of the day was meeting back up with everyone. Myself, Chase, Ryan, Mary and Erin went down to the Play House, our new favorite bar for their happy hour. After filling up on food and drinks, we did some more exploring. Look, Mary found Angry Birds cakes....

If this picture doesn't make sense to you, download the phone game Angry Birds. It will change your life and ruin your productivity.

We finished off our walk with a stroll through Albert Park. Chase took some good pictures so these are courtesy of him...

 Wider view of the same park I showed earlier.

 We liked that cluster of palm trees in the back

 Cartoon version of Ryan, Mary, myself and Erin by the fountain

 Cartoon Tommy and Mary

 Creepy negative in the same spot with Ryan and Mary. Chase was having too much fun with his camera at this point.

Chase wanted to show that his camera can also do black and white. It actually turned out to be a cool picture.

 A Mary sized palm tree

Well that's all that's happened on Wednesday. Looks like we're heading to the beach tomorrow afternoon. I'll keep everyone posted on how that turns out.