The happy couple all ready for a 2 month adventure. The Uber to LAX just arrived.
We flew out of Los Angeles at 10:45pm on December 1 and arrived in Auckland at 2pm on December 3. Our one layover was on the island nation of Fiji. We would have loved to explore a bit there but not on this trip. We took two pictures during our 22 hour ordeal and one was out the window of our Fiji Airways plane. A 2 hour Uber ride to LAX, 3 hours in the terminal, 11 hours flying to Fiji, a 3 hour layover there and a 3 hour flight to Auckland. The other was of a very interesting purchase at the Fiji duty free shop. We have never been able to buy liquor at a duty free so this was cool.
The Fiji dollar is valued at 45 cents to our dollar so some quick calculations told us that the $180 we spent on 3 bottles was actually $81 American. A bit expensive but New Zealand liquor prices are quite a bit higher.
Our digs in the Grey Lynn neighborhood of Auckland. We had a week to get adjusted and explore the city and its surrounds before heading north to what the locals call the Northland. Our ride for the month on the north island is a really nice Kia with only 7000 km on the odometer. For you English unit fans that is about 0.62 X 7000 or 4340 miles.
We did not realize our rental was an PHEV. A plug in electric hybrid. I went to put really expensive gas in it and opened the gas cap to find a socket for a plug? I had to reposition the car so the hose could reach the “other” gas cap on the other side of the car. That gave us an idea to try the charging station right outside our unit for free.
Our unit was just constructed and we were the first to occupy it. It had a new washer/dryer combo unit. Check out the time it takes to wash and dry a load! Not sure how it works but it did.
On the left are the switches/outlets on the kitchen counter top. The outlets each have their own switch above them. If the switch is on the outlet will work. Suppose that makes sense. On the right are the light switches and the EV charger on/off switch. We figure we were sharing the charger with others as it was near 4 different parking spots. Maybe if the switch is on the owner of that particular unit will be billed for the electric usage?
No comments please on the shape of the T-bone steak but the price is in NZ dollars which are valued at 0.62 US. This steak only cost $3.61 US!! We here that the entire nation is dotted with cows and sheep so lamb and beef should be affordable. Also, to export the meat would be expensive as NZ is in the middle of absolute nowhere. Just the way we like it.
We decided to book a 2 hour walking tour of the CBD (Central Business District) and find a bite to eat for lunch. The weather was very iffy so we jumped into a tourist gift shop set up for the cruise boat passengers to purchase a few umbrellas. As it is supposed to rain quite a bit we figured we would use them frequently.
A cool sports complex, mostly for rugby was about a mile from our abode. You entered the park passing through and interesting sculpture and then we watched a robot mark the lines for the upcoming match. Not sure why they don’t use these in the States?
Our tour guide recommended this cool looking restaurant with a chef making the dough for these steamed bao buns in the open window. Mine was filled with a pork mixture and very good. Bao buns are a fusion of Vietnamese and Cantonese cuisine. Auckland seems to be an extremely diverse population.
Our guide also recommended we visit the free Maori Cultural History Art Museum if we had time. We are not art aficionados but as the free admission came with a free hour long tour with a guide we decided to check it out. The first sign we saw was interesting to us with the politics in our country being what they are. All stalls in each bathroom were private so we suppose it did not make a difference.
We will not post too much about the art but this painting done in 1897, shows a good representation of what the classic Maori look like. Women also have facial tattoos but generally only on the chin. From what we have seen so far in person, most Maori men and women show off their tattoos proudly. Common practice for Maori women is to tattoo the chin only. They say that back in the day, these tattoos were really just scars left from facial cutting without any antiseptic. Must have hurt!!
Here is a pic of a Maori woman’s tattoo I lifted from Google Images.
Pieter Brueghel the Younger painted this in Belgium around 1610. It is a scene of commoners at the time during the celebration for Saints Hubert and Anthony. Over the centuries it has been owned by different Puritanical people who were not happy with all the nudity, defecation and debauchery so they painted over the offending parts. During its cleaning and restoration all these things “came back to life” so to speak.
A nice walk around Arnold Park near the museum unearthed this gem of a statue. Never heard of the South African Wars of 1900-1901. The statue face is representing the Maori people.
The park had many trees that were donated to the city of Auckland by cities all over the world. They even had a “mini” redwood and sequoia. I say mini because they are not all that old but still larger than most of the other huge trees here. not sure what type of tree the one above is but it took a nice photo we thought.
Here is a shot of the lone California Redwood we just mentioned. Still pretty large.
After our downtown tour we headed out for some exercise. One of the supposed nicest walks in the area is up One Tree Hill. The tree is now gone and replaced with a monument but a nice walk it was.
A nice view of the CBD from the summit. Very cool 360 views this chilly and windy day.
Speaking of downtown, Here is a shot of the Sky Tower. It is the second tallest building in the southern hemisphere. We are finding out that New Zealanders do not get creative with their names. Much more of that to follow in upcoming posts. The picture was taken while on Federal Street. There were pubs galore and nice eateries too. New Zealand has overtaken Ireland as the country with the most breweries per capita in the world. Cool!
We did not know this but New Zealand was the first country in the world to give women the right to vote. Women of all races and colors too. This happened in 1893. Fabulous! Our tour guide said his great grandmother is one of them in the centennial celebration photo above. He is very proud.
Cheap meat and no paying for gas- more money for gin!
What a diverse and inclusive nation, very cool to see.
Make sure you catch a local rugby match!
Howdy! Thanks for keeping up with our journey. Hobbiton tomorrow and the Glow Worm Caves today. No rugby yet but hopefully that and a cricket match somewhere. Both very big here.