New Zealand: Auckland
Friday, February 21, 2025
Just a quick note to say that I saw some flying fish today on our way towards Auckland. I haven't seen them since my Navy days which I remember it being a not uncommon sight. They emerge from the water and "fly" for about 4-6 yards before returning to the sea. They don't have wings of course but their fins may act like wings to keep them airborne for time. In my research, I found that they can actually be airborne up to 45 seconds and a documented distance of 1,300 ft! Anyway, I thought it worth noting.
Saturday, February 22, 2025
Today we docked in Auckland, New Zealand. We were greeted by a tug boat spraying her water cannon. What a nice welcome! It promises to be a nice summer day here with temps in the upper 70s with mostly sunny skies. We signed up for the Hop on/Hop off touring bus which has a route that takes us past and through most all of the highlights of Auckland.
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| Entering Auckland Harbor Sky Tower on the left |
Auckland is known as the "City of Sails". And that is obvious as we enter the harbor and see hundreds of sail boats at anchor and in slips. It is said that one out of three New Zealanders, or Kiwi's, as they like to be called, own a boat of some kind or other. New Zealand consists of two main landmasses, North Island and South Island (not very imaginative!) and around 600 other smaller islands. Wellington is the capital but we are in the most populated city of Auckland. And our now familiar, Captain Cook, became the first European to set foot on and map the islands in 1769. Today, the majority of the 5.25 million population is of European descent with the indigenous Māori being the largest minority followed by Asian and Pasifika. The official spoken languages are English and Māori and a lot of the signage is in both languages. Three quarters of the population live on North Island.
You have no doubt heard of the volcanic "Ring of Fire". Well, New Zealand is at the foot of this ring and South Island has many active volcanos which is probably why many choose not to live there. The last major eruption was in 2019 on White Island and it killed 22 people. It has since had a minor eruption in May of 2024.
Our Hop on / Hop off ticket entitles us to use a distinct set of busses that have a red and blue route to take to most all the interesting places in Auckland. We gather at the theater again and when our time comes up, we are led to the pickup point. The busses are double decker, some open on top and others are not. The newer ones. which we are loaded on, are closed on top and totally electric. They have a recorded narration as we progress through the city as points of interest are noted. We thought we should do the entire 2 hour 10 minute circuit to get a good feeling of the city. We do this but by the time we get to the outer most perimeter of the route we decide to get off and do some geocaching and exercise our legs.
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| Michael Joseph Savage Memorial Park |
This was at Bastion Point where a memorial to
Michael Joseph Savage who was the New Zealand's first Labor prime minister, 1935–1940, overlooks the Waitemata Harbor. Like the Massey Memorial in Wellington, it is built on the site of a former gun emplacement dating from the 'Russian Scare' of the 1880s. The site also features a sunken garden and a reflective pool marked off by hedges and flowerbeds. It was beautifully kept up and a great place to explore. My phone is worthless in these foreign countries but Sue's plan allows her access to the geocaching app and gives us directions, mine doesn't.
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| Sue and the Banyan tree |
Our hunt takes us past a huge banyan tree and I take Sue's picture. These trees can live for many centuries and are symbols of life, longevity, growth, stability and vitality.
We do find the cache which is in the form of a birdhouse hidden inside the tropical forest which I should have take a picture but didn't. Anyway, this earned us the New Zealand souvenir which we are trying to get for every country we visit.
After about an hour there we "Hop On" the next bus and the ride takes us through the 200 acre Auckland Domain. The Domain was set aside in 1880 as a 200-acre public reserve. It reminds one of New York's Central Park, albeit quite a bit smaller in size. The domain area was formed by volcanic activity 140,000 years ago. The large crater, which has a small scoria cone in its center, forms a natural amphitheater for large outdoor events like the annual 'Carols in the Park'. The level floor of the crater is covered with sports fields; a wooden cricket pavilion built in 1898 remains today. The rim of the crater offers panoramic views and is a great place to fly a kite.
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| Domain playing field in distance |
The beautiful Wintergardens, opened in 1913, consist of two large glasshouses each exhibiting either temperate or tropical plants. Between the glasshouses is an enclosed courtyard with fish pond, fountains and classical marble statues. The atmosphere here is charged with romance and often attracts newlyweds for photos on their big day. Behind the Wintergardens, an old quarry forms the perfect location for an extensive native fernery.
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| Museum at the Domain |
At the top of the Domain hill stands the architecturally impressive Auckland Museum, a large neo-Greek building that was opened in 1929. A variety of sculptures have been installed throughout the domain and a brochure describing the walk to view them can be obtained from the museum.
We "Hop Off" the bus in the downtown area do some souvenir shopping. It is Saturday and there is a food court set up in one of the streets along with craft stands selling their hand made products. Sue finds a Kiwi necklace she likes. One of Sue's favorite appetizers is Calamari. It just so happens one of the food stands has seafood dishes and Sue orders Calamari, and I get six fresh oysters on the half shell. We are impressed with the quality which Sue says is some of the best she has tasted. My oysters, seasoned with hot sauce and lemon are excellent as well.
We have had enough for one afternoon and we are here for one more day so we head back to the ship thinking we would rest up and maybe come back later in the day for some evening walk abouts and geocaching.
So after resting and soaking up some sun aboard, we head back out and spend the next couple hours geocaching. We did one Adventure Lab which took us to some interesting places, two regular caches and one Virtual cache. We had to find this red beacon and take a selfie to get credit for the find.
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| Red beacon selfie |
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| Sue ignoring the horse race! |
There is a live horse race being televised where patrons can bet on the outcome on one side of the bar and on the other their is a rugby game on which is actually taking place on the South Island. Quite a few of the crowd here are cheering on one of the teams which must be local. We strike up a conversation with a couple and he tries to explain the difference between rugby and our football.
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| Rugby match |
He knows a lot more about American football than I know about rugby. They seem to take their sport seriously here and follow their teams closely. I have a 2nd beer, a local lager this time and it is quite good. They have quite a selection on tap.
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| Beer selection |
We enjoyed talking with these folks, although sometimes you have to listen pretty close to get through their accent. I ask if I could take their picture and they were happy to oblige.
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| They told us their names, but I forgot! Great people |
It is getting dark out and we are starting to get hungry again and our friends recommends the Ferry Building down by our ship as a great place for dinner. We bid them farewell and head for the pier area. There are several outdoor/indoor places to eat there and we select the Shucker Brothers for another taste of seafood. I order fish and chips and Sue has, of course, more calamari. These are much larger than the ones we had at the street vendor but just as good if not better. My fish was excellent as well, as were the chips (fries).
We aren't in port at night very often as most stops are in early and leave late afternoon or early evening. So I take advantage of our night and take a picture of the Queen and of a skyscraper behind us.
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| Queen Anne at night |
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| These colors keep changing |
Sunday, February 23, 2025
Happy Birthday Sue!
We awoke to another beautiful day for our 2nd day in Auckland. I can't stress enough how fortunate we have been with the weather! It is just gorgeous.
They have on our stateroom TV, a Queen Anne today segment. It is hosted by the Entertainment Director Michael Harvey, a Canadian that has been with Cunard nearly twenty years. He generally has a co-host, Louise who is his assistant. They outline the current days activities and anything you might need to know for going ashore or planning your day. At the end, they always list the people who are having birthdays on that particular day. Since it is Sue's birthday today, I record that segment and will post it, hopefully. I will also try an post the "Fly Through Queen Anne" video that precedes each daily program to give you an idea of the interior of the ship.
https://photos.google.com/search/CgZWaWRlb3MiCBIGCgQqAggBKLDpkYfUMg%3D%3D/photo/AF1QipOCLlyh4QMYyXbUCgg_EwtTD-glQn05Hqd7280J
(Above is Sue's BD announcement)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vL-xnOq2Qk9kYbPC7dkTcaRFFyfwzjb6/view?usp=drive_link
(Fly Through video above)
We thought that we would walk to the Sky Tower and take in the 360 degree view of Auckland. We quickly find out that this city is very hilly, it reminds me of San Francisco.
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| Queen Anne from over 600 ft. up |
The tower doesn't look that far away but by the time we wind our way there we are quite tired. We enter the building but have to go down a two story escalator to get where we can make our way to the tower elevators. Of course there is a fee which as I recall was about $25 U.S.
There are different levels, Level 51 is just an observation area, 610 ft high, which is where the elevator takes us. We walk around there and take a few photos. But, the real action takes place on the 53rd level. This is where you can pay to do a bungee jump from 636 feet! Or, if you are chicken and don't want to jump, you can walk around the perimeter of the tower, outside! I watch one gentleman jump off with the bungee, never to be seen again. I guess they unstrap him when he hits the bottom. There is a group of four, I assume family members, that have paid for the outside walk. We watch as they are buckled in and given instructions. It is windy of course and I can't imagine walking around out there.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DhbB5-3N1jH7In_wtXOntWlFHoE13tsj/view?usp=drive_link
Bungee Jump above
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Dj3FvTzipacA59gVUiUL7LLKVt01xBsX/view?usp=drive_link
Sky Walk above
I might have considered doing this 60 years ago. I did, in my stupid years, climb our local water tower and hang a dummy of our high school principle from the platform. But now, I can barely step on the clear glass window on the deck that has nothing under it but air! Hopefully I can post the video I took of the sky walkers.
We leave the Sky Tower and I need a pair of good sandals. I have a pair at home, but I chose not to pack them. Bad decision! I don't mind wearing sneakers and socks when I know there is a lot of walking to do, but otherwise, I like to have open toed sandals.
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| NZ Sketchers store |
So Sue locates a Sketchers store not far from the tower and we go there and I purchase a nice pair for NZ$149.00.
We need to start thinking about getting back to the ship but Sue wants to get some gelato ice cream so we head to the Ferry Building again where we knew there was a shop. There is a line and Sue gets in it and I head for Shucker Brothers where I know there is a beer waiting for me. When Sue finally joins me, we decide to share another order of calamari. So for the third time in two days we eat calamari, a perfect way to celebrate Sue's birthday.
We have an overnight voyage to our next destination of Tauranga. It will be a busy few days as we will be in a different port each day.
Until then......
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