Auckland, New Zealand

1/2/11-1/3/11

We were sad to be leaving the cruise ship the next day, but we still managed to have a really fun last night on the ship, partially thanks to winning the newlywed game and a trivia contest during the cruise.  We had won 4 prize tokens from these contests, and we could have traded these in for 4 hats or 2 bottles of champagne.  It was a tough choice, but fortunately we did not choose the hats.  We planned on leaving one of the bottles for Joe and Kathryn, but dinner ran long....  

In Auckland, we disembarked. Some of us were forcefully removed from the ship, and some of us were petty and stole rolls. After they dragged Beth from the ship, and the adorable agriculture sniffing dog found the rolls in the shorts, we met up with Joe Crail and Kathryn, who just happened to be taking the same cruise in reverse.

                            

We rode the hop on hop off (hyphenating nightmare) bus around town, seeing some of Auckland’s Highlights. Auckland Highlights: small mountains with lookouts for scenic photos, medium mountains with look outs. We stopped at one, Mt. Eden, that had a giant crater- Auckland is built on 48 volcanoes, which is slightly stupider than building a large city in the desert on top of earthquake faults, or building a football stadium directly over an active fault. 



View from Mt. Eden

Had lunch at Burgel Fuel, a chain restaurant that is vegetarian friendly. Their menu specifies that they are "Vegetarian Society Approved" and that they cook their "vege" stuff separately. Nice! Then, took the ferry to Devonport to walk around some more and hike up a mountain (Mt. Victoria) there. They had a retracting gun they built in anticipation of invasion by Russia and/or Fiji. More views. There were some really nice 360 degree views including of the Auckland skyline from the top. Beth is obsessed with taking pictures of views to the point of making me want to lose another camera on this trip. Keep an eye out for our next blog: 600 photos of Beth and Rich standing on a non-descript mountain smiling. Devonport also has some nice beaches, so we relaxed on one for awhile after our walk back down the mountain. 


Richard with Retracting Gun

 

Auckland City Skyline in Background

                                             


from the top of Mt. Victoria

We wandered around the shopping district of Auckland along Queen Street and surrounding areas, and the wharf and pier area. Apparently it was a holiday since New Years was on a weekend, they just take the whole week off. This means that restaurants charge a 10-15% surcharge for holidays. We stayed at the Jucy Hotel, which was one of the cooler hotels we have stayed at. Nice views, huge room with high ceilings and an atrocious purple/green paint scheme. After that we had a nice dinner at a Japanese restaurant on the wharf with Spencer and Dina and then off to bed.

I am happy to report that we never once changed currency in New Zealand in 5 days. We found NZ about 20-30% less expensive than Australia for food and tours.

Right now we are sitting in what may be the world’s ugliest airport - Honolulu International, where the power outlets don’t work, and the décor is a mix Soviet Concrete Block and Brady Bunch 1970s. They do have free internet, though, so that’s a plus.

One of the toughest challenges we’ll have is adjusting downwards from our 5,000 calories a day cruise diet. We’re thinking we might have to slowly wean ourselves down.

Hope you have enjoyed traveling Australia and New Zealand with us.  Stay tuned.... where will we go next??

Tauranga, New Zealand

12/31/10-1/2/11

We were in the 2^nd time zone in the world to celebrate New Years, 21 hours ahead of everyone back home in So Cal. We had New Years on the ship. It was a formal night (Richard’s favorite!) (Editor’s note, not Richard’s favorite). They had several parties going on in the bars and clubs – but the central atrium was the place to be at midnight. We secured a prime spot early, complete with our bottle of champagne (courtesy of Princess, for our newlywed game winning), and band playing. At midnight, they released a ton of balloons and streamers from above, and the crowd went wild. It was a fun place to be.

Happy New Year!!!


  The day following was a sea day (probably much needed after the festivities from the night before) and the day after, we stopped in Tauranga, New Zealand. From there, we took a tour into Rotorua, where there is a ton of geothermal action (hot springs, geysers, etc).

We stopped first at a kiwi farm – a requisite stop apparently, it being New Zealand and all. Kiwi refers to the fruit, the people of New Zealand, and the soon to be extinct bird. We went underneath the growing kiwi vines. We tasted some kiwi, and some kiwi wine made entirely of kiwi fruit, no grapes.

                                     

 

We then drove through the winding hills to Rotorua, which is a town on a lake (which was formed from the spring water).

We stopped at Te Puia which is apparently Maori for “tour bus parking”. We saw a Maori cultural performance – Maori, by the way, are the native people of New Zealand. The Native Americans of New Zealand, to be politically correct.

                                                      The warriors stick their tongues out to appear fierce

We then went on to see some crazy geysers (interesting note: Aussies and Kiwis pronounce the word “geezers”. So if you want to see a bunch of actively exploding old people, this is the place). The geysers were unreal – they can spray up to 35m high, or higher. You can get up very close – in fact, the walkway next to it is covered in a steam and mist from the geyser. The entire geyser area is covered in a plume of steam. There are steam vents in the ground all around too. It’s really an amazing sight.

                                     

We also saw boiling mud pools, which look like something out of a movie. Hot gurgling bubbling mud pools.

We saw a couple of kiwi birds – they are nocturnal, so you have to go into a darkened area (simulating night) to view them in action. Action, being a loose definition, as they basically just skitter around. They are sadly close to extinction – thanks to their complete lack of ability to move or defend themselves?

Afterward lunch, we went to some other hot springs areas. Saw giant boiling pools with steam billowing off of them. They are all different colors depending on the amounts of sulfur.

                                           This is what happens when you spend 23 straight days together

Following that we drove back through to Tauranga. There we power walked on a path around a mountain near the port in the beachy port town of Mt. Maunganui, just making it on the boat in time. We were prepared to miss the boat and drive to Auckland, as Rotorua was that cool.

                                     

                               
Note: By the way, for those of you were confused and started googling "alien new zealand" after one of our last posts, no we did not actually see any aliens. That creature pictured is the character "Gollum" from Lord of the Rings. Which was popularly filmed in New Zealand. No, we did no go see where it was filmed, as we have no interest, and haven't actually seen the movies.