… to Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand …

… our final port before heading to the airport.

Thanks to the efforts of our friend Liandra in Excursions, we were able to book a full-day tour of Auckland, plus a transfer to the airport. Without these arrangements we would have been saddled with our luggage for the day, or restricted to the airport. Instead we got to see the best of Auckland!

Auckland is the largest city in New Zealand, with 1.2 million inhabitants. (The entire country is just a little over 4 million people.) Housing prices are very high, with many homes in the million dollar range. In one neighborhood near the ocean, the cheapest homes are more than $6 million! Auckland has beautiful houses, interesting churches, and miles of beaches. Like Wellington, many of the most exclusive houses are on the hillsides, with views of the sea. Auckland is bordered by two oceans: the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean. With only a forty minute drive from one shore to the other, you can easily swim in both oceans in the same afternoon.

We stopped first in historic Devonport for a quick look at some of the charming shops. On the road again, the bus hugged the coastline. The city skyline looks great from any angle!

Next stop: Auckland’s Sky Tower, standing tall among the other buildings in Auckland. We had a spectacular view of Auckland from the observation deck, on the tower’s 52nd floor. Some panels in the floor were made of plexiglas, providing a clear view straight down – 52 stories.  We glimpsed the Oosterdam in the harbor(over my right shoulder). A five-story Santa Claus at a downtown store. And the Auckland Harbor Bridge.

  

  

One of the tower’s big attractions is a bungee jump or free fall from the top. While we were there, two intrepid adventurers set out to jump. Outside, we saw them as they jumped. The man is the tiny speck that looks like a spider at the center top of the picture.

   

Here he is magnified. This was the only picture I managed to take of the descent! It was over quickly. I believe the speck on the left is the woman, who was a split second behind him.

Back on the road, we stopped at the Dove Myer Robinson Park, named for Auckland’s longest-serving and most beloved mayor. The park is a rose garden, with hundreds of varieties on display. Beautiful!

   

We drove next to Parnell, an upscale neighborhood, for a lunch and shopping break. We ate at Burger Fuel, which thoughtfully provided little cardboard – Doofers? We carefully assembled the Doofers, still not sure what they were; a family at a neighboring table told us the'yre used to hold your burger together, as Frank demonstrates. How handy!

 

One of us admired the fanciful “fascinators” or outlandish hats in the store windows, including these two views of the same improbable hat. One small gust of wind and it’s all over!

  

Then it was time for Kelly Tarlton’s Sea Life Aquarium! Housed in an old water treatment plant, the aquarium is Kelly’s attempt to show non-divers what divers see underwater. There were many displays – Antarctica, seahorses, jellyfish, stingrays – but the most captivating was the penguin area, said to be the largest penguin exhibit in the world. The penguins were behind glass, but so close you could really see them. On suitor brought his intended a rock he apparently swiped from someone else. You can see him dropping it at her nest. She was not pleased and squawked at him until he slunk away, leaving the pebble behind. Perhaps she wanted a diamond?

    

 

The aquarium had the requisite shark tube, and a lovely tropical fish area. The aquarium was our last stop before heading for home.

But then a funny thing happened on the way to the airport. We rounded a corner and there was a very loud “bang!” The driver stopped the bus, hopped out, and on returning, announced that we had blown a tire! You can see the large split from about 1:00 to 3:00 in the first photo. He immediately phoned for a replacement bus, and contacted a tire repair guy as a backup. The repairman won, finishing up just as the other bus arrived. The repair process brought out the supervisory staff … it was very impressive that the guy, who had moves and tools fit for a Nascar pit crew member, never removed the cigarette from between his lips during the entire process…

   

We arrived safely at the airport, and waited for our flight to LAX. After an 11 1/2 hour flight, leaving Auckland at 10:45 pm, we landed at LAX at 2:00 pm the same day!in the afternoon. As the pilot explained it, LAX is 3 hours ahead of Auckland  - but a day behind! We were back from the future and home in Coronado by 6 pm. Another trip to remember!

… Rotorua, part two …

… lunch and beyond!

We went to the Distinction Hotel in Rotorua for a Maori lunch and show. The pronunciation of Maori ranges from MOW-ree to MAR-ree, depending on the speaker – the Maoris themselves say MOW-ree. There was a lovely buffet with traditional and non-traditional Maori fare. Unfortunately, just as the show got underway and everyone began eating, the extremely loud and persistent fire alarm sounded and we had to leave the building. The good-natured performers didn’t miss a beat; they continued their show in the parking lot! Extreme facial expressions are a big part of the Maori tradition; first encounters with strangers typically consisted of trying to scare them away by looking ferocious. Of course the protruding tongues could also have had something to do with the not-so-distant Maori history of cannabalism…

   

 

On our way to Te Puia, after lunch, we passed beautiful Victorian homes.

Te Puia is New Zealand’s Maori Cultural Centre, home of the New Zealand Maori Arts and Crafts Institute, which includes the National Wood Carving School, and the National Weaving School. Specially chosen young people from different tribes are brought together at Te Puia to learn Maori arts and crafts. Our guide demonstrated how to make a grass skirt from flax leaves, and how to make an unbreakable rope from just a few carefully twisted flax fibers. As she showed us, the fibers must be rolled along the leg to twist them properly.

 

 

 

We visited Te Puia’s kiwi house, seeing several kiwis roaming their dark enclosure; because they are nocturnal birds all kiwi displays are dimly lit. Once again, no photos were allowed.

Then we visited the thermal mud pools and geysers. It was a surreal landscape of smoking rocks, boiling mud, and spouting geysers. Steam billowed from hundreds of fissures in the rocks. Bright yellow sulfur deposits highlighted the vents.

 

 

As we sailed away from Tauranga that evening, Frank captured a magnificent sunset from our veranda to end a long and lovely day!

… to Tauranga and Rotorua …

… to see geothermal geysers and many other things on a nine-hour excursion. The port of Tauranga is in the Bay of Plenty region, named for its fertile land and temperate climate, where crops flourish.

We passed through Te Puke, the kiwi fruit capita of the world. Kiwi fruit is a hybrid of the Chinese gooseberry, bred by a man who lived in Te Puke. He quietly grew the fruit until the 1960s, when a study proclaimed it a “super fruit” for its high concentration of vitamins. The industry is thriving; there are kiwi fruit tours and a kiwi information center. The fruit grows on a vine, like raspberries; growers build a 6 foot high structure and train the vines along wires to make harvesting easier.

 

What look like man-made terraces on the hillsides in the next picture are actually tracks worn by the sheep while grazing on the grass. Yes, they really do follow each other around the meadow, much as in your dreams! Sheep are raised primarily for meat; the wool market collapsed several years ago and has not yet recovered. We also passed areas of whitewater, with canoes and rafts for rent.

 

Our first destination was Rainbow Springs Wildlife Park, “where kiwis play.”  Despite the warning signs, we saw more reptiles and trout than kiwis. The Park’s rainbow and brown trout breeding programs provide trout for the entire region; the trout bred here stock local rivers and lakes. Although you can catch trout and eat them, by law they cannot be sold in stores or restaurants.

   

The park also had many silver fern trees; at first glance, they look like palm trees. The silver fern leaf is one of the main symbols of New Zealand, appearing on sports uniforms, flags, and other official items. Only the underside of the leaf is silver.

At last we came to the flightless kiwi birds. An extremely endangered species, there are only an estimated 70,000 kiwis alive today, down from millions of kiwis 200 years ago. Predators include opossums, dogs, cats, stoats and weasels. At the park, the kiwis lived in a nocturnal house, dimly lit with red bulbs. It was hard to see the birds, and photos were not allowed. A display outside included mounted specimens, much easier to see – and photograph!

 

Leaving the park, we passed ZORB of Rotorua, where you can pay to climb inside a giant inflatable ball and be rolled down the hill, either tethered or untethered. Hmmm, not sure which I would choose…

Next stop: the Agrodome, started by two sheep farmers who parlayed their experience with sheep shearing and farming into a popular tourist attraction. The show began with a display of 19 different breeds of sheep, and continued with shearing and milking demonstrations, concluding with sheepdogs. For the finale, three sheepdogs climbed onto the backs and heads of the sheep on stage and sat there, while the sheep seemed oblivious. Look for the dog on top of the tallest sheep in the picture. The English Leicester sported the snazziest “do” of the day!

  

Back on the road, we headed for the beautiful town of Rotorua and its amazing geothermal springs. The town has a lovely old church on the beach. It also has many old hot spring bath houses, including one which is now a museum.

 

Steam rose from backyards … the beach was beautiful … and even had a kiddie train!

  

Time for lunch!

TO BE CONTINUED …