Sleep is for the Weak: Auckland Day 1

We arrived in Auckland unexpectedly refreshed and grabbed a shared van to the inner city. Auckland immediately brought to mind San Francisco – a beautiful city with lots of hills. Right away, we noticed that the city was an interesting hybrid of Britain, California, and traditional Maori culture – consider the street names: Trafalgar, Bel Air, Rewa, Onslow, Torrance, and Tamaki, to name a few. Our cab driver told us that gas is about US$1.69 per liter, so about $3.20/gallon, nothing shocking. There are US-style road signs, but they drive on the left side of the road and there are tons of traffic circles.

After dropping off a couple in Parnell (a tony part of Auckland), we went to our hotel, the Copthorne Harbour City, which I picked on Expedia because it was the cheapest in inner city. We were thrilled to see that it was right on the waterfront, but we were more than a little surprised to see that it was situated right next door to the Auckland office of Gretchen’s firm. We dropped off our bags at the hotel and went immediately to start seeing the sights.

Right away, we noticed that the city was an interesting hybrid of Britain, California, and traditional Maori culture

We caught the first Auckland Explorer bus of the day. This bus is a terrific way to see Auckland – for NZ$30 (around US$18) you get unlimited hop-on, hop-off for the whole day. We went to the MJ Savage Memorial first, which gave a great view of the city. We walked down a short trail through the woods to Mission Bay, a gorgeous beach completely littered with perfect seashells. We noticed right away that Auckland is a great city for families, since there were quite a few kids at the Mission Bay playground. After walking on Mission Bay beach, we caught the bus again and headed to the Auckland Museum to transfer buses. While we waited for the second bus, we visited the Wintergarden, a beautiful greenhouse full of impossibly gorgeous flowers and huge lilypads.

We took the 10:30 bus to Mt. Eden, the highest point in Auckland and a terrific photo-op, and passed through lots of upscale old-money neighborhoods with snooty gardens and bowling clubs. Not like US bowling alleys, these had grass. I speculate they have something to do with cricket. Can any UKers confirm? We hopped off at the Auckland Zoo. The zoo was a complete surprise. It is by far the best zoo I have ever visited. The exhibits are outstanding, and the animals are closer to the visitors’ area and more active during the day than I have ever seen. Fantastic! We were even able to touch some of them – including an ostrich that Gretchen befriended. They had giraffes, lions, elephants, and cheetahs, not to mention the amazing nocturnal and elusive kiwi. We met meerkats and sea lions and penguins. Wonderful! After the zoo, we hopped back on the bus and drove past Eden Park, the home of NZ's national rugby team, the All Blacks (Hi Tom!). After the bus tour, we officially checked in to the hotel for a quick freshen-up since our room was ready.

After washing up, we decided to head to the Auckland suburb of Devonport, which was a great idea that almost didn’t happen because we had to literally sprint for the ferry at full speed. This being super-nice NZ, they held the boat for us, and we were off on our 8-minute voyage. Devonport is to Auckland what Sausalito is to San Francisco. There were adorable beachfront houses, a yacht club, and a cool shopping district full of useful, useless stuff. We decided that we need more lemon verbena in our lives. All of the houses were either gorgeous, quaint, or both. After walking around Devonport for 2 hours, we were ready to head back to center city Auckland.

We showered (finally, after 40 hours), changed and hailed a cab to Symonds St to go to dinner at The French Café, which the guidebook recommended and which called to me. The food was awesome. We had delicious pre-dinner aperitif wine cocktails, then perfect medium rare filet with fried potatoes and truffle sauce for GF and veal carpaccio with artichokes and sliced parmesan for me. We had a nice cab-syrah blend with dinner and finished up with the always perfect crème brulee. After dinner, we were completely spent, so we were asleep by 10. Cool, I know! But we have a big day planned for tomorrow.

Note: I am having trouble uploading photos to the blog, so you will have to wait until the email comes with hundreds of photos to sift through. I am hoping at least some of you will want to see them. Zupnicks, I'm looking at you.