Auckland

Jan 16th (Mon) 2012

A sad day as we now return to Auckland, hand in our car & get ready for our flight home via Singapore. I am very sad. I could stay here for ever. I dread the short days and the damp, cold temperatures in the UK. I think Pete is ready to come back though. He's done SOOOO much driving(13250 Km) I think he'll be glad to be transported around for a while.

We left at about 9.30am & basically just kept going apart from stopping for elevenses & lunch. Again there was some wonderful scenery through the Kauri forest. It's good to be able to identify these impressive giants & so sad that so many of them were lost when the first European settlers arrived.

We arrived in Auckland at around 1.30pm & dumped our stuff at the Hotel & went off to return the car. On reflection that wasn't a clever move on our part because we then had to walk to the supermarket and carry all our food and drink in our backpacks. The apartment is right at the harbour which is lovely. There are some extremely expensive yachts moored here. We have a kitchen with hob, oven, microwave, dishwasher, washing machine and dryer. So we have cooked a proper meal this evening with enough left to have tomorrow night. The wi fi is really expensive here but we'll try to get this on the web somehow.

Jan 17th (Tues) 2012 Sebel Suite

Up late and a very slow start - we were both really tired. True to form as we stepped out of the hotel it started 'spitting'!! We decided to go on a hop on hop off bus tour of Auckland. Auckland is built on 50 volcanoes - -scary!! Auckland has a population of 1.2million but covers the same area as London (popln ? 10m). So again most people outside the city centre live in detached houses - well most live in detached bungalows which take up even more ground than a house. A third of the population of NZ live in Auckland. I mentioned yesterday that there were loads of yachts in the harbour. Some seriously wealthy people live here with some houses selling for between $3 & $16 million! It is known as the City of Sails.

Our first hop off the bus was at the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity. This is a modern building with the nave being completed in the 1990s. The stained glass windows are wonderful & each tells a story and has relevance to the country rather than being bible stories. Standing next to the Cathedral is the much older wooden building of St Mary's Parish Church. This used to be located across the road from its present position. The 395 tonne building was moved in its entirety & then turned through 90 degrees. The whole building is built of Kauri wood. All the stained glass windows were brought across without even a crack by being protected by plywood bolted onto each side! (More info on leaflets)

We then hopped on again & off at the Auckland Museum. We watched a Maori cultural experience & also looked round at some inteesting exhibits. We hopped on the bus again & saw quite a few 'must see's' off the bus including Eden Park where the 'All Blacks' play and won the World Cup in 2011, a fact that Kiwi's take great delight in telling people - especially the Aussies. Kia-Ora!

On our return to the city centre we had a short walk around the shops & then back to the hotel.

Tomorrow if the weather's OK we hope to take a short harbour islands cruise.

January 18th 2012 (Wed)

We boarded the cruise boat at 10.30am. Lovely warm sunny day today. We headed out into the harbour from where we had magnificent views of Auckland central businness district sky scrapers. We passed the commercial port of Auckland. The dockers have been on strike since before Christmas. This has had quite a detrimental effect on the economy & resulted in the loss of two important contracts. We continued on down the Waitmata harbour towards the Bean Rock Lighthouse. This is a wooden structure sitting on a nearly submerged rock which, underneath the light, had a hexagonal cottage for the lighthouse keeper. When this became automated the cottage was removed for renovation before being reinstated . It was found that the lighthouse keeper must have had a lot of time on his hands as there were 22 coats of paint on the inside walls!! We sailed on to Rangitoto Island. This volcano erupted from the sea 600 years ago & frightened the local Maori - Rangitoto means 'blood red sky'! This is now colonized almost entirely by the Pohutukawa tree (red flowering tree that can hybridize with the red flowering Rata tree) because the young, thin porous soil created unusual conditions. However, the Pohutukawa tree is able to root down 20 metres to find water. Great efforts have been made to rid this island of introduced pests and predators and keeping it that way. Some endangered species (like the saddleback bird) have been reintroduced. We went ashore here for about 10 minutes & were intrigued to find a number of small wooden houses/shacks which had been built in earlier times when camping had been allowed on the island. People took advantage & gradually converted their tents into shacks. This practice was stopped by the bovernment in the late 1930s. Of the 100 or so 'baches' that were left 34 have been earmarked for preservation while the rest will be cleared.

We sailed towards Bastion Point which commands the entrance to the main Auckland harbour & has been a fortified position since the Maori first lived here. It was strengthened for fear of Russian invasion at the end of the 19th century & then again during both world wars during the 20th century. However, the guns were never fired in anger.

We then sailed past Devonport which is the earliest suburb of Auckland city & is a place that tourists are encouraged to visit. We then passed the Royal NZ naval base atDevonport where we saw several frigates & other war ships. We then continued past the harbour & under the Auckland Harbour bridge which you can bungi jump off. We could see the Chelsea sugar refinery - -the only refinery in NZ and an iconic NZ product. We then turned back towards the ferry terminal at Quay St but skipper said that construction work on the quay would delay our return by 10 min so we diverted to the ? West Point harbour where 3 huge yachts were moored - -the largest belonging to the richest man in NZ!

We then returned to apt for lunch & sort out our cases.

Walked to Post Office to post off leaflets, maps etc . Caught 4.30 ferry to Devonport. Walked along by the water's edge. Still lovely weather lots of Yachts sailing and people swimming in the sea. Didn't really fancy any of the eating places over there so we caught the 6.30 ferry back to Auckland. Freshened up at apt - -set off fire alarm ---- OOOPS!!!! Had a lovely meal outside in the Italian resteraunt just outside our hotel. Wonderful atmosphere & superb service from a young man from Macedonia. Delicious red Sicilian wine & a couple of Stellas for Pete!!! End of our NZ adventure. Off to Singapore in the morning.

January 19th (Thurs) 2012