In the morning I went to the Parnell Rose Gardens, a 4 acre garden located not too far away from my hostel. It was pretty peaceful; I chilled out there and ate cookies whilst planning out my route for the next couple of days. Pictures to the left and below.
The evening was pretty interesting. The annual Lantern Festival is in Auckland for this weekend only. It's a celebration of the Chinese New Year, held on one of the thoroughfares of the University of Auckalnd and in the neighboring park. The thoroughfare was absolutely jam-packed with Asian street vendors, most selling food but a few selling trinkets (paper lanterns, noise-makers, etc) or handing out Buddhist literature. Overall it looked like pretty authentic Asian food, although there were a few stalls selling foods like grilled corn on the cob. I didn't get anything to eat as I had already gotten fish and chips at a small take-out restaurant near the hotel.
The main part of the festival was in the park next to the thoroughfare. The entire park was illuminated with lanterns- many of the typical small globe-like lanterns hanging from trees, but there were a bunch of really ornate ones on the ground shaped as stars or moons or dragons. There were also a few stages set up with Asian performers, mostly singers but a few instrumentalists. All in all it was really interesting. Pictures below.
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