Time For a Trim in Auckland

We stay two nights in Auckland. The weather is not great; overcast and intermittent rain. Our hotel is the Crowne Plaza and on one of the floors is a laundry room, so we take the opportunity to get our clothes cleaned. Keith also decides it's time for a haircut and, in an arcade near the hotel, is a hairdressers, staffed by orientals. Communicating what Keith would like done is surprisingly challenging, as none of the staff speak much English. However, with a bit of sign language and some sort of understanding, the lady hairdresser sets to work. Keith even gets a hair wash as part of the price. Even better, the haircut itself is really good, so it all turns out fine in the end. Meanwhile, Diane treats herself to a pedicure at a unit also run by oriental ladies - we have the impression that this is really an Asian city and certainly, at times, we felt we were in Shanghai rather than Auckland. In the evening, we go to an Indian restaurant, recommended by a member of staff who came from that country, as she said it was the closest she had come to tasting food similar to that in India. As we already had great food in India, we wanted to try some again, especially as we had found that the offerring in New Zealand generally to be pretty ordinary and sometimes quite bland. The restaurant, called 1947, was packed (but we had booked) and it did not let us down. The food was really tasty, packed full of spices and therefore very enjoyable. We get back to our hotel and get ready for our final leg of our journey to South America.

Before we go, we found it quite amusing (and rather alarming) that, in most of the toilets in New Zealand, there are signs about how to 'position' yourself, so to speak. In other words, don't step on the toilet seat and squat! The posters were aimed at our oriental friends, who clearly did not like their flesh touching the seats, so would climb on the ring. Despite these requests, Diane said on numerous ocassions she went into the toilet and was confronted with two dirty shoe marks on the toilet seat. Wonder if this would still had been the case if the seats were warmed, like in Japan?