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??