We left home on the morning of November 14 and spent a lot of time on planes and in airports before arriving. We did have a nice (though abbreviated thanks to traffic) visit with our friend Alfred Valrie at The Encounter Restaurant while on our layover in LA.
After a long 13 hour flight from LA to Auckland, NZ, we were treated to a beautiful sunrise from the plane. Landing in Auckland, you feel as though you are landing on water.
Customs wasn't a big deal. We were a little concerned at first because the declaration form asks if you are transporting nuts, and we had some packaged Planters nuts that we brought to have with us when hiking or walking around. To declare or not to declare? The form stated "raw" nuts, but we opted not to take any chances. It turned out that they were not concerned with the nuts once we told them they were packaged, but they were concerned with our hiking boots, which were not one of the questions on the declaration form.
The shuttle ride to the hotel (Rydges Auckland) was uneventful, though we were not able to sit together for a good portion of it. I ended up sitting next to a marine biologist from Falmouth, MA. We talked a little about the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute where he worked (and I used to go on school field trips as a kid).
While I was checking into the hotel, Michelle ended up speaking with a couple who was just finishing their trip around Australia and New Zealand. They claimed to have only had two good meals on their entire trip and told us we needed to pick up the book "Visit Australia and DIE."
After getting settled and cleaning up, we struck out to get some lunch and see the the Auckland Domain, which is home to the Auckland Museum and the Winter Garden. On the way to find the little cafe where we had lunch, we passed the Santa Claus statue at Whitcoulls bookstore, but his face was covered up. Apparently they make a big ceremony of revealing the face, which winks at passers-by.
We continued making our way to the Auckland Domain through Albert Park, which is kind of like "the Green" for the University of Auckland. When we arrived at the Domain, we took "Lover's Walk" from the Auckland Bowling Club up to the Winter Garden and Auckland Museum. At the Winter Gardens we saw some beautiful flowers and a guy burning weeds from between the rocks with a big blowtorch.
We spent some time at the museum, where we learned a bit about Maori culture and saw Sir Edmund Hillary's ice axe. The traveling and time change started to set in though, and we hit a wall so we made our way back to the hotel by way of the Centennial Walk and took a nap.
In the evening, we found a good Indian restaurant and wandered around the waterfront. For the first time on the trip, we felt the person waiting on us at the restaurant thought we didn't order enough food (though what we did get was more than enough). It wasn't like we could take leftovers with us. While we were there, the couple who took the table next to us ordered a ton of food. Not sure if we missed something there, but it happened several other times at some of the Asian restaurants at which we dined.
We didn't stay up too late, as we had an early morning departure for Waitomo and Rotorua.
See pictures from this and other days of our trip here.
