NEW ZEALAND
3/9
Auckland Again
Our early morning flight from Queenstown arrived in Auckland, and we were at our pre-booked AirBnB before 10:00am. We had to wait a little bit, because our host was still cleaning his apartment up before he headed off for the weekend.
The place was convenient, right on Queens street across the street from an old historic building. Just a few blocks from the harbour, clean with 2 bedrooms, a full kitchen and bathroom, it seemed great.
Waiheke Island
Since we had the entire day on our arrival, and we were pretty much done with wandering city streets and shopping, we decided to do a little day trip. We could just walk down to the harbour and catch a 35 minute ferry to Waiheke Island.
It's a very nice harbour, with loads of boats of all types out enjoying the sunshine and calm waters. It's very different from the first day we started our trip and all the boats and ferries were canceled because of Cyclone Gita.
In no time we arrive at Waiheke Island, and walk over to the rental area. Our initial plan was to rent a scooter and explore the island, but after talking to the guys there, part of the island is inaccessible to scooters, and the cost for a car is cheaper. With a little more space, and a little more oomf, we head off to explore in a beat up little Toyota Corolla.
The first thing we discovered is that this islands network of interconnected roads is crazy. Street names change up to three times in a 2 block span, roads join from all angles, and quickly we are on the South side of the island when we thought we were on the North side. So we grabbed some lunch and finally figured out how to get back North and stopped at a very quiet and lovely beach in the town of Onetangi.
With hardly anyone to disturb us, we spent some time swimming in the warm waters, and had a picnic before continuing our exploration.
The area has many cool wineries on the East end of the island, but the roads you are traveling on are gravel and dirt, which I could see might be a little sketchy on a scooter. The views and little beach areas are well worth the rough roads though.
More dirt roads that didn't seem to be going anywhere, and we found ourselves at the Stony Batter Historic Reserve. Originally a counter-bombardment installation built for World War 2, it was built in secret as it provided a perfect viewpoint to protect Auckland from any invading forces from Germany or Japan, and included all kinds of bunkers and tunnel systems. The military tunnels were open to the public as a museum of history, but were closed down in 2017 because they weren't sure they could ensure the safety of the visitors. You can still hike around the area as it is a wonderful nature reserve with stunning rock formations and views.
It's a bit of a hike on a hot summer day, so make sure you have water... but so worth it. Although you feel alone on the hike, there always seems to be someone watching you.
At first we thought we were lucky enough to spot a Kiwi rummaging through the grass during daylight hours, but turns out it was a Weka. Another flightless New Zealand bird about the size of a chicken, and apparently, like the Kea, are known to steal from tourists.
The highlight of the hike was definitely these crazy rock formations, made just a little more unique with a splash of white paint.
There is a rustic fence stair and an unmarked trail to a beach we never found, but over the rise the views were breathtaking.
When we got back to our car, much to our surprise, those meddling kids were parked right beside us, no sign of Scooby Doo though. They have the greatest rental vehicles here.
Back in the car we made our way down to Man O' War bay and the famous Man O' War vineyards. It was here that Captain James Cook anchored during his first voyage around the islands of New Zealand in 1769. When he saw the Kauri trees on the hillsides, Cook noted in his journals that they would make ideal masts for the Man O' War battleships of the Royal Navy, that's why it was named Man O' War.
From Man O' War we worked our way down to the southernmost point of Waiheke Island and the bays surrounding Orapiu.
We eventually wound our way to the south shores of the aptly named Rocky Bay area, before ending up doing circles through a maze of interconnected streets. At one point we passed a local family for a second time, and the driver shouts out the window at us, "Hey, I just saw your brother!". We chatted to them for a bit, and as it turns out they have relatives in Delta, BC. Small world.
After finally finding our way out of the street maze, we were getting closer to the ferry terminal and found a really nice restaurant called Stefano's Pizzeria. Really good giant homemade style pizza's, I had Smoked salmon, scallops and prawns pizza and Norine had a Funghi pizza, we both ended up taking more than half home on the ferry so we could try their incredible looking desserts.
We filled up the car after finding a gas station, dropped it off and slid the keys through the mail slot, and enjoyed a quiet ferry ride back to Auckland in the dark. A short walk from the Marina and we were home for the night...
and that's when we discovered the truth about our Airbnb apartment. We have stayed across the street from Grand Central Station in NYC, and been in the horn-happy centre of Montreal, but neither of those compare to the noise levels on Queens Street in downtown Auckland. From open piped Harley Davidson motorcycles to tuner cars cruising up and down the street, it was noisy. Add in some asshats with PA systems on their cars blasting some kind of Bollywood music and large groups of drunken sports fans yelling and screaming their way up and down the street, well, let's just say that I fully appreciate a good pair of earplugs more than I used to.
3/10
We were woken up early by someone blasting their music so loud it shook the building, so may as well have some pizza for breakfast and head out to explore the city some more. Today we would do the Auckland Hop on/Hop off Tour on a double-decker bus. It would give us a chance to see more areas than just by walking, and you also get a bit of a history and informational lecture from the driver.
Hop On/Hop Off Auckland
The first stop is towards Mission Bay and Bastion Point area, the main stop there is the Kelly Tarlton's Aquarium, but we didn't feel much like spending time in an underground aquarium when it was so nice out. The marina's there are nice though.
The bus toured us around many of the unique areas of Auckland, with a little back story on each of them.
Mission Bay's expensive homes 
Parnell Rose Gardens
Holy Trinity Cathedral (2016)St Mary's Church (1897)
Auckland MuseumWintergardens
Auckland Girls Grammar SchoolEden Garden
Some streets were barely large enough for the bus to travel down, especially when we got close to Mt Eden.
Literally a high point in the city, with Panoramic views in all directions, Mt Eden is a dormant volcano including a caldera.
The views from up here are amazing, let's just hope this volcano stays inactive. Full circle photo views below.
On the way back down I had a near death experience. It's a narrow paved road with a sidewalk on the steepest part of the climb, and some girl decides it's a good idea to launch her giant drone right from the middle of the sidewalk. So I had to step out from the sidewalk, and suddenly Norine is yelling at me "Dave, Dave!!!", all I can hear is the drone right above my head so I figure I'm about to get hit by a drone. No apparently cyclists ride to the top of the hill, and then come full speed racing down the narrow roadway. With the noise of the drone I didn't hear his little handlebar bell, and he nearly plowed in to me. He asked if I was OK, and then proceeded to ream out drone girl.
After surviving Mount Eden, we got back on a Hop On/Hop Off bus and wound our way back towards Auckland Harbour. Past the famous for cricket and rugby Eden Park stadium, past the famous for shopping St. Luke's Shopping Centre, past the famous for wild animals Auckland Zoo, and back to the famously tall Skytower.
Art GalleryOrient TowersSkytower
Part of the purchase price for the Hop On/Hop Off tour is return ferry trip ticket to the Auckland suburb of Devenport. Well you can't just get something like that for free and not take advantage of it, it was still early afternoon so we would have time to explore a little.
The Ferry was a little delayed because the harbour was so busy with boats involved in the Volvo Ocean Race, but eventually we got underway for the crossing to Devenport. There were boats of every kind, everywhere.
Devenport
It's just a 15 minute ferry ride to the far side of the harbour, but it's very different from Auckland. Devenport is one of Aucklands oldest suburbs. At one point a Navy town, it's now beaches, shops and Victorian houses in a seaside village.
One of the great things that we noticed throughout Auckland was SPCA volunteers out with their dogs collecting donations, of course we had to stop and say hello to the volunteers, and their owners.
The seawall was a great place to stroll along and watch the yacht race traveling past.
We grabbed some takeout food and wandered down the seawall and found a nice beach spot at Torpedo Bay. A great place under the big trees to spend an afternoon having a picnic and swimming in the waters, while looking across at Auckland.
Right before we left to catch the ferry back, we had a good laugh as a dad and two young boys brought some Fish n' Chips down to the beach. One little boy wanders down to the water, and the dad tells the other to wait with the food or the birds will take it. As the dad gets down to the one kid, the other doesn't listen and leaves the blanket... within seconds the seagulls are flying away with their fish pieces.
What a nice way to spend the afternoon, and just minutes away from the big city.
Back in the city, we wandered the streets a bit before heading back to what we expect will be a noisy apartment. One of the highlights of wandering the streets is the Big Hoot event that they have going on. There is an app you can get, and you track down all these painted owls throughout the city to earn prizes. Some of them were plain, but most of them were quite beautiful or at least interesting.
Our last night in our Auckland AirBnB was again a very noisy one. Turns out there was a big Rugby match, so everyone needed to wander the streets yelling and singing about out, then drinking and puking about it. Yay earplugs!
3/11
On our last day in New Zealand, we met up with our friend Susan again, and went for breakfast, then hunted a few shops for that perfect Kiwi souvenir. Since our flight wasn't until later, Susan took us to the very colourful Auckland gardens. We were thrown off when we didn't see a ticket booth, apparently this massive garden complex is free to enjoy.
The gardens are split up into different species, and all based on natural variations that are found throughout New Zealand.
A nice way to spend an afternoon, and after a nice early dinner at a western themed bar, it was time to say our goodbyes, and head home.
Air New Zealand does their upgrade options a bit different than most airlines, they use a bidding system. You make an offer of what you might be willing to pay to get the upgrade, and a little meter scale shows you what they think of your offer (scale from poor to excellent). Thing is, you don't know until the day before whether it will be accepted or not... our "fair" offer was not accepted.
I did get on the phone with them because they also offered another comfort known as Skycouch, but I couldn't book it online. The idea is that you pay for the middle seat in a group of 3, and get the whole segment of seats, the legs lift up and make your section into a comfortable little couch area, where you can recline, stretch out and sleep during the 14 hour flight home.
Dreams of having a comfortable bed based on their promotion were quickly dashed, when we discovered that realistically only one person can fit if the passengers in front of you recline their seats at all. So we ended up taking turns with one person sitting and the other stretched out across the other... but at least they had all the latest Oscar contending movies in their seat back entertainment.
How they advertise it What it's really like
We covered the two islands of New Zealand from top to bottom, and I drank a cold beer from almost every region.
NZ is truly a wonderful country with a lot of similarities to British Columbia, but also very different in a lot of ways too. From the the amazing people with their funny accents to the diversity of the landscape, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend that you travel there if you are looking for somewhere to go that provides such a mix; chill on a beach, explore the wilds and geo-thermals, or get that adrenaline rush.
Once we got home, we started noticing the high priced New Zealand Manuka honey, we'll leave that for the tourists, we bought everything we needed, and of course a couple more items for our travel tree
