Pounding Ponsonby and Parnell

We have spent the past few days walking up and down through the cafe districts of Ponsonby, Parnell and the Central Business District (CBD) of Auckland. Ponsonby is jam-packed with all kinds of very cool little eateries, funky and fashionable. Parnell is a little more refined, but with lots of great choices. CBD is a teeming mass of humanity with a Starbucks and a kebab joint on every corner, and often several in the middle of the block as well! We venture out from 11:30 - 1:00 to get a feeling of the lunch crowd, then again from 5:30 - 7:00 to see the dinner crowd. Meetings, phone calls, and grading papers in between. We've been surprised at the counts we've gotten, but we do have a bit of an odd situation in that one of the major national holidays (Labour Day) was Monday and people may be just a little too exhausted from their holiday reveries to be eating out right now. When we are finished with our observations, we will often stop at the grocery store and get something to take home. You can only eat restaurant food for so long before NOTHING looks good!