Lazy weekend days

I've been enjoying my weekends not working.. This past Sunday we had a bit of a lazy day and went for walk in the Auckland Botanical Gardens. It is HUGE! And amazingly enough, it is free to the public! There were lots of families having a look about and with most of the paths you can take a stroller along or even a wheelchair. There are lots of native ducks in the streams and ponds to see. We headed straight for my favorite subject to photograph at the moment.. roses! I think I saw the most roses in my life there. The air was sweet and succulent with their essence. I snapped away happily as the summer sun shined down warm enough to have people start undressing. One of the only days we've had so far where a tank top or t-shirt and shorts is enough to get by. All of my picture snapping zapped my batteries and I was tired before we had seen the whole park. We missed the Sculpture Gardens but we'll just save that for another day..

Bathrooms disguised as a cottage in a Secret Garden.
A very modern cafe with biscuits, scones and hot drinks.
Newly designed main information building.

Yesterday we were at one of the few NZ/Australia banks and I noticed a hot drink machine. You can get hot chocolate or hot lattes for free! I asked the teller for a cup because they were missing but she came back with "the machine isn't working right now." The sign said it was only for customers seeing a personal banker but I think we qualified since we were for at least 35 minutes. Most of the banks here look very modern and some almost space age (ANZ.)

We've found eating out is quite pricey here. You can go to a burger joint and pay $30 for a meal for two! I mean it is the best burgers around..but still $30??! Even fast food chains are more expensive here. The GST is 12.5% on most goods and services and is usually built into the price already. So you pay the price you see and forget a large chunk is because of taxes.