21/12/2025 A traumatic Mall Experience… people!

As Morg and I failed to get the snorkels yesterday we had to go to Albany Mall on the North Shore, about 10miles from Auckland City Centre.  There is a closer Mall, Sylvia Park that has over 200 stores but Morg said it would be absolutely manic, it’s always busy but the Sunday before Christmas will be a nightmare. I bow down to his greater knowledge, besides I love a road trip.  To get to Albany we had to cross The Auckland Harbour Bridge. Which turns out to be what drew Morgan back to NZ after we came over for The Lions Tour . The things you find out! The Bridge was opened in 1959 and up until 1984 it was a toll bridge. It took a team of 1000 people four years to build and currently employs 25 people on the maintenance side of it, which costs around $8 million a year, that amount includes the costs of resealing it.  Reaching 64 meters above the water at its highest point , which is the top of the arch, it spans 1.2 kilometres across the Waitematā Harbour. In 1990 a moveable lane barrier was installed,  mainly to improve the traffic flow during rush hour but also to prevent head on crashes. There is also a traffic light system that allows one car from each lane to feed on to the bridge at a time, again to help with congestion and increase safety levels. When it was built it cost $246.5 million in today’s money.  

The Mall was horrendously busy, as we expected, but luckily we managed to find a parking space straight away close to the main entrance.  We needed to get a few things for Fiji, mainly small travel bottles to decant sun oil and shampoo into. There is no way we are carrying the litre bottles of shampoo and conditioner to Fiji and back!! Because that’s just plain silly. We seriously questioned our decision as the car park, although full, didn't really give a true indication of exactly how busy the inside was, it felt like we were queuing just to get around. Kmart, our intended destination, was worse than busy. We quickly found what we wanted, then had to walk right around the store to get to the end of the queue just to pay! I have never seen the like of it, and Morg said it was a good job we'd gone to Albany not Sylvia Park as that would have been much worse. As it was we only had to wait 20 minutes in the line, they had staff directing everyone to available self check outs which sped things up no end. Significantly traumatized, I couldn't wait to get the hell out of there. 

Torpedo, where Morg had found the snorkel Masks is on the other side of the road to where we had parked so rather than move the truck, Morg wheeled me over in Mildred, getting more and more frustrated with people in general, like me, most people are really not his thing! Especially ones wheeling shopping trolleys and walking really slowly in front of us meandering across the pavement. We finally got to Torpedo without anyone being taken out by Mildred and went straight to the water section, i got a bit confused as I wanted the full face easy breather mask but they are in two sizes depending on the length of face from bridge of nose to chin. Now at home this wouldn't have been a problem, because I always have a tape measure with me. Unfortunately I opted not to bring it with me on the trip, which now turns out to be a fundamental school girl error. All the masks were sealed in boxes but I managed to find one that wasn't sealed to carefully prised it out of the box to try on. It was the larger size one and far too big for my face, so i packed it back carefully back in its box, put it back and picked up the small one. We checked out and as the sales have already started it was half price, which was rather splendid.

Traumatised beyond belief from the whole people experience we drove back to Morgs house, the bridge offers a stunning view of the city, which Morg never tires of, if he's driving home from working on the North Shore.

The Wynyard Quarter is impressive full of all the private boats, god only knows how much it costs to moor them there. 

Closer to St Helier, in Orakei there are more boats moored and the place just screams money and wealth, the roads are prettily tree lined and as you gaze about you become aware of the volume of trees that are growing, we wondered if it was to stabilise the soil incase of earth quakes, or could be they just like trees… 

The beaches were once again really busy, and mission beach more so, I discovered it is because it actually has a large car park which St Heliers does not. There are also tribal reasons which Morg explained to me as well but predictably I've forgotten.. As we came into St Heliers, parked on the  side of the road, there was a beautiful bright red vintage car, complete with a picnic hamper on the back. It was proving pretty popular, with people stopping to have their photo taken with it. I got a few drive by shots of it. 

I also got a photo of Morgan, without him sticking his fingers up at me. Hurrah for me.

It was such a relief to be out of the Christmas Madness and back in the tranquility of St Heliers. Morg ordered an Uber eats from Nando's for dinner, which was another first for me. As Morg had been out last night, he was a tad tired, not helped by that classic winding down for the holidays feeling, so after we'd eaten dinner he dropped me back to the apartment. 

Having already swum this morning, I went down to use the sauna on my return, and as it was quiet I decided to swim again which was really nice. Thankfully I wasn't disturbed and had the place to myself which works well for me. 

After what turned out to be a productive day, an early night was the plan, I just hope for some  sleep tonight.

Much Love

Mrs Leoanrd

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