Feeling Sheepish

Morning coffee overlooking the harbour
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AUCKLAD

Fast facts:

*  Auckland 1.4 million people almost 1/3^rd of the entire New Zealand population.

* Not even habitated until about 600 years ago. First Europeans arrive in the mid 18^th century.

Girl laughing hysterically at Claire's audition
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* Lots of sheep.

Cheers!

Short hop to New Zealand from Fiji. After negotiating our way through the airport, we jump into the rental car for the drive in to Auckland. Only problem is that the steering wheel is on the wrong side. Manage to cope but every time I signal, I turn on the windshield wipers. Get all the way downtown without hitting anyone. Bonus; a super clean windshield.

Go for a walk downtown and can tell right away we’re going to like this city. Wonderful harbour, clean streets, hopping cafes, bars and restaurants, wide variety of people. Feels like a bigger, more diverse Halifax. Great hotel. Sky Tower Grand. Walk downtown looking for English style fish and chips and end up eating in a Belgium pub on Vulcan Lane,. Outstanding dark Lette beer. All the desserts are served with Belgium waffles. Belgium, get it?

The dynamic Gary & Jill Hill
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Up the next morning go for a walk to get a coffee and read the paper. These people take their coffee very seriously. Every time you order one they grind the beans for your cup then press it. No Tim’s here. Problem is that their terminology is just as bewildering as a double-double would be to them. Finally, figured out that I wanted an Americano. This knowledge will serve me well.

After breakfast at an outside café (pronounced caff) overlooking the harbour we take a hop-on hop-off bus tour of the city. Stop at Auckland Museum and then again at Parnell village. Museum interesting. A pretty decent Maori dancing and singing show at the museum. Claire auditions for the troupe but is politely declined. Actually, firmly declined. Actually, they threw us out of the museum.

Vinyard for overpriced wines
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Back at the hotel we meet up with our friends Gary and Jill Hill from Edmonton, who will be accompanying us for the next three weeks while in New Zealand. Out for supper outside, overlooking the marina. It’s Friday. Pizza.

Next day the four of us take a wine tour to Waiheke Island. About a 50 minute ferry ride to the Island where a tour bus picks us up and we visit three wineries (Stony Ridge, Mud Bridge and Peninsula Estates) over next 4 hours. Almost 42 wineries on this island. The tour was excellent, the hospitality gracious, the scenery spectacular. But at the risk of offending any New Zealanders, we didn’t find any wine here that justified the prices being charged even at their own outlets. Seem to be well regarded but not to my tastes.

Claire, well, you know.
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Day three. Another great day. This afternoon we visit the Waitakere Range. Basically a rain forest, waterfalls, trees, that kind of thing. Not exactly my idea of a thrill-laden way to spend 5 hours but …different strokes.

Actually the scenery is dramatic, diverse and dynamic. (It wasn’t really that dynamic but I can’t think of another “d” word) From the black sand beach to the Jurassic park type forest, to the waterfalls from the mountain, there was lots of stuff that was dramatic and diverse. And um, dynamic. If you’re interested in botany or just some terrific scenery, it’s worth a try. If you’re looking for something more engaging or of interest to normal people you might look elsewhere. Met a couple from Pittsburgh who think their team will win the Superbowl. (post script: Turns out they were right.) We haven’t seen many Americans here. Also met some Australian couples plus a young man from Japan newly arrived to study English and Business in NZ for a couple of years. Nice people, even the Americans.

Dined in tonight. Claire a little under the weather. Runs for the cure, if you know what I mean. Nice quiet evening at home.

Auckland? If I were going to design the perfect mid-sized city it would be Auckland. What more can I say?

Tomorrow we hit the road for a four drive north to Pahia in the Bay of Islands.

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Question Section:

As we travel around the area we become curious about things for which we can’t easily find the answer. We’re going to post the question on this site. We’ll send a postcard from wherever we are at the time to the first person to provide a correct answer. Of course since we don’t know the answer we won’t know if it’s right or not but if it sounds any more reasonable than what we’ve come up with so far you’ll win.

Today's question: Are the moon phases the same in the northern hemisphere the same time as they are in the southern hemisphere? In other words if someone is looking up at a full moon in Halifax on any given day are we also looking at a full moon in Auckland at the same time (after adjusting for different times of the day?) And how does that work?

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Things I learned today Section:

Another section in this log will be a “what I learned today” item. World travel is supposed to be enlightening after all. I’ll try to learn something really really important every day. Today I learned that he longest place name in the world still in use is Taumataawahkatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwenuakitanatahu or Taumataawahkatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwenuaki for short. It’s a hill in Porangahau in the Hawkes Bay here in New Zealand. It means. “the place where the Tamatea, the man with the big knees, who slid, climbed and swallowed mountains, known as Landeater, played his flute to his loved one.” That’s the really really important thing I learned today.