20060506 Sydney - Auckland NZ           Map Link      No Photos  

Another beautiful morning in Sydney. Up at 6:00, into the lobby at 6:35, into the taxi at 6:50. The hotel is perfectly adequate but we'll probably stay at the Holiday Inn - Darlington Harbor when we return because it is located in the shopping area we'll need then (souvenirs).

The taxi driver was typical for any large city - get into the fast lane and stomp on the gas pedal until you run into something.

Departures at this airport are as bad as arrivals- fill out a form and get checked out of OZ as well as do everything the airline needs to admit you to NZ. But maybe all countries are like this now. We checked in the OZ rental phone (they'll hold it until our return for further use).

Soon we'll board the Air New Zealand 767 for Auckland. Well, that took longer than we figured, and looked more confused than some departures. Still, we got off only a little late and had a smooth ride to Auckland. We picked up the rental phone and took the airport bus into the hotel. Well, close to the hotel; the driver got to talking with a backpacker (one of many) and missed our hotel - then dropped us off on a convenient corner from which we hiked. We're on the 28th (concierge) floor of the Crowne Plaza; we’re treated us well here.

We caught a cab to church at the Pro-Cathedral (the Cathedral is under renovation) of St Benedict. Small crowd, big place with massive timbers above stone walls. Very conventional service with a black priest. We started walking back afterward but captured a cab.

At the hotel, we nibbled a bit in the lounge, then went to dinner (beef for D, snapper for me) in the nice hotel restaurant. We arranged for a tour tomorrow with the concierge, then off to bed.


20060507 Auckland NZ (named after Lord Auckland by the founder of NZ, Capt Hobson)      Photo Link 

Awoke, had a small breakfast in the club lounge, then down to the street to wait on the tour bus. Another beautiful morning, a little cooler than Sydney but not much. The bus came and brought the two of us to the collection point.

Then our morning bus took us and four other people (daughter/father from Mexico, couple from Japan) on the city tour.

We wandered back and forth and up and down all over the downtown and near suburbs. We saw the University and Prince Albert Park and stopped for an hour at the War Memorial Museum (not nearly enough - this place would require a couple of days).

We continued down to the waterfront at the oil tank farm, since it has a great view of Auckland's Harbor Bridge (smaller than Sydney's). A whole lot of small boats were leaving the marina to go have fun. I can see why cousin Fran would like this place.

Around noon, Amos returned us to the collection point. A smaller bus drove up directly, gathered us in, and away we went for the afternoon. In the people mix there were a widow from Australia, a sibling couple (she lives in Iowa, he in Boston), the Japanese couple and another Japanese couple.

We headed west for the hills and beach. We stopped at a little bakery and grabbed sandwiches and drinks and hopped back into the coach, eating on the run. The road (already narrow) got narrower still as we entered Waitakere Ranges Regional Park. We stopped briefly at the Arataki visitor's center (see photos in gallery) for a bit of orientation but more to use the restrooms.

Then we drove down to a very crowded parking area (Sunday, everyone's out). We trekked a short ways back into a little valley and came to a nice waterfall. Elen (pronounced ee-lin) gave us a lot of little talks as she came to various natural features. She was also full of interesting little trivia pieces of information, one of which is that there are more people killed each year by falling coconuts than are taken by sharks. Then she went on to say that we're very safe, there are no coconuts in NZ. She also mentioned that there are no poisonous snakes or crocodiles or alligators and no large cats or other attacking animals. My kind of place as opposed to Australia which has all sorts of things that want to kill you.

Then we hiked down to the beach, a broad expanse of black sand (crushed lava) with large surf just offshore. This surf was confused due to rock formations; we saw later a beach with long, rolling waves, just right for surfers. Then we hiked back to the coach. Elen drove us into a picnic area and set up afternoon tea. We had tea and cookies in this nice little park.

Then she drove us back to the city and dropped us off at our hotel. We'd had enough exercise, so we flopped down in the club lounge with wine & whiskey & cheeses & nibbles. After watching more organized mayhem (Aussie Rugby) on TV for a bit, we went to the room and cleaned up for dinner.

We walked the two blocks to Orbit, the rotating restaurant up on the Sky Tower (tallest tower in the southern hemisphere). We had a very nice dinner while we were spun around to see all of dark Auckland. Very pretty, good food.

Then back to the room to collapse totally.

Tomorrow, we’re to fly to Christchurch on the South Island.