Auckland, New Zealand

New Zealand has 4.5 million citizens of which 1/3rd reside in greater Auckland. This city is spread out and covers about 1/3 of greater London but with considerable less people per square mile.

(Auckland CBD)

(Auckland scramble everywhere downtown unlike one spot in Tokyo)

(Christmas is almost there)

(Maori gate statue in the center of town)

It's CBD or central business district is walkable in 15 minutes in any direction. It is mid spring in the city and students who graduated are parading in their togas. The Santa Claus parade is scheduled for the 29th of November and stores are ramping up their sales. The TV announces Black Friday sales despite the fact that there is no Thanksgiving here.

(Auckland public train system, below in "silence" the noisy rockers on the screens)

The very first morning at breakfast we meet a couple from Hawaii, pegging us for rockers, who come here to see the very last original Rolling Stones concert by "Mick, Keith, Charlie and Ronnie", a still prancing and jumping but very wrinkled group by now.

(What are spookers?)

(A peak at our nose bleed stands - blue section)

We went on line and got overpriced nose bleed section seats and the next day we enjoyed in a light drizzle the picture show on the jumbotron screens. 37000 people packed an open air stadium miles outside of town. Free buses very efficiently transported the fans to and fro from the city center.

(We are in line for the bus to the concert, below note bus sign)

(Must be Mick's above, below stadium still filling up as seen from my seat)

We liked Auckland, the easy walking down to the harbor, a city bus that is very cheap and the required local sky tower, where they accept us for lunch without comment about our appearance. Then again we were in neither sports shoes nor shorts, so we aren't too sure if it was a matter of us having learned our lesson finally, or that Auckland is less formal than Perth or Sydney. And actually the food up there was the best we tasted in months. Looking outside over the vistas below, we were also entertained by sky walkers and jumpers right outside our windows.

(Sky Tower restaurant and below our view of people paying $100 plus to do that)

(View from our restaurant window up in the sky)

(Rangitoto island in the distance emerged from the sea only 600 years ago)

The first day in Auckland we took a hop on hop off bus for the day and saw all Auckland wants us to see. We only took one hop off option and visited the arboretum there. Photos will show you we still take pictures of flowers in abundance wherever we are.

(Idyllic spot outside arboretum, the sign below is puzzling)

(Colors you don't often see and below the arboretum building)

(The size and color is such a fresh green)

(No self respecting arboretum can do without bare breasted maidens)

(Beauty inside the arboretum and arguments outside)

(Buntacawa trunk system)

(City workers creating a new work of art at the harbor using children's bikes)

One cannot but notice the Buntacawa trees, here nicknamed Christmas trees, for their red flowers during the December season. The root system is fascinating. For us, people from the other half of this globe, a hot Christmas season with Christmas trees decorated in red, void of snow is difficult to grasp, as we walk in 20C or 70F temperatures around town.

(Auckland CBD view from the ferry)

A ferry ride to one of the islands, Waiheke, around Auckland and a strenuous walk around the North end of the island, which we aborted halfway, when we saw the first and only sign saying "Trail suitable for experienced trampers only" - sure wished they had mentioned that before we had walked half of the 15km/10 mile hike and had already figured the "experienced" element out for ourselves - was another of those great "lazy" days we enjoy so much when in a large city.

(Old buildings downtown)

(Anglican Cathedral and the scramble again - just wish we had that in the USA)

( note the gadget on top making it a hotspot)

The phone booths here are crowned with a hot spot piece of equipment, for which one unfortunately has to have a subscription.

(Wild flowers and views during our strenuous walk around the island)

We overheard a "12 days of Christmas" song blaring in the shopping area, where the line "Partridge in a Pear Tree" was changed to "Parrot in a Palm Tree".

(The museum and below a water flowing ANZAC monument in front of it)

While here, we rented a car, as New Zealand is all about the countryside. So in our "driving on the left, manual shift" little Corolla, we went north of town looking for a tourist office, where we hoped to find ideas of where to go and what to see. The rented GPS told us that in Patakuna we would find a tourist office. Alas the office closed a few years ago and the GPS was thus out of date.

(We told you we photograph flowers everywhere)

We stayed for a week in Auckland and traveled several days out of town finding coves and beaches with no establishments to nourish us, often homes spread out with those views, realtors will sell you on, but with the grocery stores an hour away towards a larger community.

(A Mazda fan gathering as seen from the hop on hop off)

We stumbled onto a wine area, Matakana, that turned out to produce wine, that is very much sought after.

We noticed that the "Kiwis" liked white cars as they dominated the roads, that almost all localities have Maori names, that people here drive the posted speed limits (4 km over, for you US people that means 2.5 miles over the speed limit is a ticket). On TV we watched during that week the debate in parliament to ticket people at 1 km over, but within 24 hours that idea was scrapped after a newspaper and TV talk host barrage against that notion, rightfully arguing that drivers eyes would be glued to speedometers not the roads. There are speed cameras everywhere it seems and the max limit on any road in the country is 100km or 62mph.

Wherever you drive you see sheep, sheep and sheep dotting the hills, yes New Zealand is hilly.

(Just one picture of sheep dotting hills)

Our new Hawaian Stone friends (they came to Auckland flying 8 hours just for this last performance) treated us in a Japanese restaurant "Masu" to a wonderful meal and converted Sandee into drinking Sake, although it was the pricey variety, that is so silky smooth, it doesn't seem to be alcoholic at all and it was served cold.

I hope she will give up this new found taste for expensive Sake so we will be able to keep on traveling.

(Masu restaurant open kitchen)

One of the wonderful benefits of travel is meeting people along the way that you just know will be friends long after the trip is done. That's true of our new Hawaian friends John and Taeko Skinner.

The next part of our New Zealand travel is Napier or to be precise, the locality just outside of Napier called Poraiti in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand's "Mediterranee" and most famous wine area. I am looking forward to that experience.

 

 

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