Australia and New Zealand
Mike and Judy Henderson
March 21 to April 9, 2019
I'm going to leave the map on each page of this blog so you can see where we are.
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4/7/2019 (Sunday) We arrived in Auckland this morning. Getting our luggage out in the hall by 6am meant an early rising. Here we are waiting to depart the ship.
After breakfast we were on the bus by 9am. A view of the Auckland skyline from the harbor area.
Needing to keep us entertained until the 3pm hotel check-in time, the Tauck people had a few things arranged. First, they took us to the Michael Joseph Savage Memorial Park.
Miles lives near the park and had a friend bring Ollie, his dog, to the park. Here are Ollie and Miles.
And a better look at Ollie.
Then we went to the New Zealand Maritime Museum, which displays racing boats and other items connected to the America's Cup races. New Zealand is the current holder and will host the challenge in March 2021. Here's a copy of the America's Cup, which is presently held by New Zealand. [Update: New Zealand retained the cup in 2021.]
Next we went to the Auckland War Memorial Museum.
This room lists the names of those from Auckland who died in the First World War.
There's a Spitfire in the museum.
There's also a Japanese Zero in the museum.
Even though it's a war museum, there's an area devoted to Māori artifacts. Here's a replica of the type of boat the Māori sailed to come to New Zealand.
By then it was lunch time, and we were set free to have lunch in the Parnell Road district, which has many shops and restaurants. We chose Non-Solo Pizza. Others in our group chose it as well, and were sitting at the table next to us.
After lunch we were able to check into the hotel - the Hilton - at the end of a pier at the harbor. A nice hotel.
Months earlier, I had contacted the Auckland Beekeepers organization and asked if a beekeeper would be willing to meet with me to talk about beekeeping in New Zealand. Pablo German volunteered, and he picked us up at the hotel about 5pm. His wife and family were with him.
His wife is from northern China so he selected a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, and his wife did the ordering for all of us. Here are Pablo and me at the restaurant.
I had volunteered to pay for dinner, and tried to do so. But the restaurant would only take cash and we didn't have enough New Zealand dollars to pay the bill. Pablo graciously paid the difference. Thank you, Pablo!
After dinner we went to their house and talked about bees and many other things. It was a very enjoyable evening.
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4/8/2019 (Monday) Today we take a ferry to Waiheke Island. The ferry terminal is at the next pier over from the hotel. We can see it from our hotel room window.
It was an easy walk to the ferry terminal from our hotel. Here's the group boarding the ferry.
As we were departing the ferry terminal another ferry boat was coming in. Here's what an Auckland ferry looks like.
On the way to the island, I took this picture of the New Zealand "Red Ensign". The Red Ensign is used on merchant vessels and is different from the national flag of New Zealand, which has a blue background. The flags of New Zealand and Australia are similar (but different).
We arrived at Waiheke Island and boarded a bus. The bus driver explained that there's no public water supply on the island so each house collects rain water from its roof and stores it in a tank on their property, or purchases it from a water tanker during dry seasons.
Our first stop was the Rangihoua Olive Oil Company where we saw the machine they use to extract the olive oil.
Then we had a tasting of their olive oil. We were just about out of olive oil at home, so we bought a bottle.
Then we went to Batch Winery where we tasted their wine.
The winery is at the top of a hill and provides magnificent views of the island. That's mostly Mānuka trees out there.
Then we drove to a beach area on the north side of the island, desirable for summer sun in the Southern Hemisphere. We mostly just drove along the beach. I took this picture of a couple of the beach cottages out the window of the bus.
I didn't get a good picture, but at several homes there was a boat parked in the driveway. The unusual thing is that there were wheels on the boat. The bus driver explained that the wheels are called "Sealegs" and were invented and manufactured by a New Zealand company of that name.
I went to the web and found these two pictures that demonstrate how they work. The wheels are powered so you can drive the boat to the beach (I suppose you wouldn't be legal on the highway but could do it off road). The front wheel is connected to the steering wheel of the boat so you can steer it. You drive your boat into the water and then retract the wheels. When you get back to the beach, you put the wheels down while you're in the water, and then drive the boat up on the beach. I thought it was a neat invention.
Then we went to Cable Bay Vineyards and had lunch. They served us multiple courses of food - it was after 2pm when everyone left. Judy and I skipped dessert, caught the 2:30 ferry, and arrived back at the mainland about 3pm.
That evening was the farewell dinner. We boarded the bus and crossed the Auckland Harbor Bridge to the north shore.
From the bridge we could catch a glimpse of the restaurant we were heading to - The Wharf.
From the restaurant we had a nice view of the bridge at dusk.
We had cocktails before dinner.
The restaurant had tables on two floors so everyone had a view of the harbor. It was a nice dinner.
A view of the bridge after dark.
Then it was back to the hotel to pack for our flight to the US. Some people had very early flights - 3am - and left early.
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4/9/2019 (Tuesday) Judy and I have a late flight - close to 10pm - so we have some time to walk the city. We walked up to Queen Street, the main shopping street, and then to the Auckland Sky Tower. They offer a bungee jump from the tower - called SkyJump - and a walk around the outside of the tower - called SkyWalk.
We walked back to the hotel area through Victoria Park.
In the dock area we saw this warehouse where boats are stored.
And this building housing the headquarters of the New Zealand team for the America's Cup.
Then we had lunch and went back to the hotel to wait for our ride to the airport. Our driver came at 5:30pm and we had an easy drive to the airport.
Everything went smoothly from there on. We got through security quickly and waited in the Air New Zealand lounge. The eleven and a half hour flight was full but the service was good and we slept for most of the flight. Our driver met us at LAX and we had a slow ride through Los Angeles rush hour traffic. We were exhausted but Judy did a couple of loads of laundry before we collapsed into bed.
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4/10/2019 (Wednesday) We slept through the night, which was good. Our main task today was to pick up Skipper at the kennel. He does well at the kennel but was definitely happy to go home.
And that was the end of another adventure.
Our loveable cat, Bernie, passed away in January. Here's Bernie (Rest In Peace). He was such a sweet boy.
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