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Auckland 2

This morning we checked out of our Airbnb and headed to downtown Auckland for a free walking tour. Free walking tours are usually good because the guides are working for tips and this one was no exception. We didn’t actually see anything too special, but there was a lot of good information and history about Auckland and New Zealand.

The above picture is of the British governors office from the 19th century. The interesting thing about it is it is made entirely of wood, but it is shaped and painted to appear to be stone, to give an appearance of solidity and wealth. It is now part of the University of Auckland campus.

After the tour we had lunch and left Auckland for our next stop. A friend of a friend of Yanmei’s had a small farm just south of Hamilton. The drive was pretty nice, but nothing spectacular yet.

The farm was a lavender farm.

I happened to get a cool shot with the telephoto lens.

After the farm we headed to our next stop, which was another Airbnb near Tauranga.

We have a pretty busy schedule ahead of us, because we have to be in Christchurch on South Island by January 16th to pick up our RV.

David

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Auckland, New Zealand

We arrived yesterday in Auckland, after a long day of travel. It started with a short flight from Kauai to Honolulu, where we transferred to Air New Zealand for our flight to Auckland. We arrived around 5:30pm local time, and by the time we got through customs it was a little after 6pm, but still plenty of sunlight since it is summer here and the days are long. I called the car rental company for their shuttle to pick us up and got a voicemail that they closed at 6pm. WTF? We ended up taking an Uber to our Airbnb.

Yanmei said it was my fault for not calling to confirm our arrival time. However, that’s not the lesson I’m taking from this, my lesson is not to book with the cheapest no-name company online. I should have paid a bit more for one of the big name companies like Enterprise or Avis. What kind of airport rental car company closes at 6pm? Anyway the bright side is we didn’t drive while tired from a long flight, and possibly make a mistake since they drive on the opposite side here.

We ended up going to get our car this morning, then doing a bit of shopping for supplies. Driving on the left isn’t too bad so far. The biggest problem is I keep looking up and right for the rear view mirror, when it is to my left. I’ve also turned on the wipers a few times when trying to signal a turn 😀.

The Airbnb is nice and we’ve been taking a rest day and planning out the next several days of our trip. The weather is sunny and warm.

David

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Last day in Kaua’i

We started the day with a quick visit to the Spouting Horn, where waves shoot through the rocks to cause a geyser.

Then we headed for Waimea Canyon. It only takes a few miles driving to find a change in the weather in Hawaii. Waimea Canyon has some spectacular views, and even the drive there was lovely.

After Waimea Canyon we kept going up the road to Pu’u A Kilo lookout, which is near the top of the mountain. There is a sign that says it is one of the wettest places on earth, and true to form it was foggy (or cloudy since it is about 5100 ft elevation), so we couldn’t see to much. We started a hike to a vista point, but the trail became progressively muddier and more slippery, so we turned back after seeing some folks with legs covered in mud.

Overall a pretty fun day. Kauai does remind me of Jurassic Park, which is not surprising, since this is where it was filmed.

On the way back, Yanmei predicted she could spot 20 wild chickens on the 15 minute drive between the airport and our place. Her final total was 25 chickens and 2 wild pigs.

When we got back to the room I tried to check us into our flight to New Zealand tomorrow morning, and got a bad surprise. It said we would not be able to board unless we had proof of a flight leaving New Zealand. Since we were hoping to have an open ended, flexible trip we hadn’t booked flights beyond this. Very annoying! We ended up booking a flight to Brisbane, Australia on Jan. 26th, just so we will be able to board tomorrow.

David