The Lightpath

 Today we headed out from Rotorua enroute to Auckland for our last night in New Zealand before our red eye flight back to Maui tomorrow.   

We swung by Guidough's bakery in Rotorua and grabbed some pastries and coffee for the road - the Cinnamon rolls were excellent!

The drive into the big city took about 2 hours and 45 minutes, and as usual we played Botticelli, eye spy, and Reef proposed a new car game that I would describe as a complete failure - hide and seek.  The game amounted to me counting to ten and then turning around and spotting Reef still in his carseat where he remained buckled in per our strict rules - not exactly a difficult game, but Reef had fun with it for a minute.

Upon arriving back in Auckland and checking into Sudima - we set out to find "The Lightpath" a hot pink separated bike path which threads its way through the middle of the city on an elevated route that is lit at night with various color LED lights.  As it turns out one end of The Lightpath is only two blocks from Sudima, so it was an easy walk over to the start of it - and it is really amazing!  The path takes bikers and walkers on a completely safe route through a roughly 1/2 mile section of the city called spaghetti junction where all sorts of freeways meet-up. It is part of an 8 km (5 mile) downtown bike loop.  The conditions today were less than optimal for our exploratory stroll - it was pouring - and over the course of the walk we got completely soaked, but it was well worth it as the Light path was probably the most remarkable section of protected bike path I've ever seen.  Not to mention there is a great view of the SkyTower from the path, though with the rain the top of it was clouded in most of our walk.  We were there a bit too early for the lights, and given the rain we weren't interested in waiting for dark to see the lights go on - but no less the path was fun to walk on and it's proximity to Sudima is a definite reason to stay here on our next trip to Auckland so we can wander over to see the lit up path easily after dark.

Now soaked to the bone, we walked one block past Sudima to the Brewer's Cooperative where we had some good burgers and got to enjoy a flight of eight New Zealand beers we had not previously tried - our favorites being the Double Vision Brewing - Chillax XPA and Epic Brewing - Thunder APA.  

From there it was back to the hotel to dry out and hope for a window of good weather tomorrow before our late night flight out.  The hotel is just one block from the SkyTower and the rain had backed off enough for some good views of the tower’s lights at night on our short walk to the hotel.