We arrived in Auckland at 06:45 am on the 14th of February, after a 20-hour flight trip
starting in Burlington Vermont. Of course, it wasn't a single plane ride, but a series
of flights going through JFK in New York and LAX in California. Our transport provider
failed to get our luggage on the same plane as the one we rode and we ended up having
a bit of anxiety to get our luggage onto the New Zealand Air in time for us to catch
our scheduled ride. Luckily the luggage arrived on the next plane and we made our
flight although we had to be escorted through to the gate in order to make it -- hey,
that's one way to bypass the long lines at security stations :-)
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You can bet your boots that our butts were sore from all that sitting --
in cramped airline seats, yet.
You can also bet that we'll never do that again; instead,
we'll fly to LAX the day before our international to get a little bit
of rest between the long flights.
We begin our journey in the Hawthorne Suites motor inn in Burlington (left).
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| We had booked a room in a very nice Bed and Breakfast (B&B),
the Chevron Chalet Inn in Parnell, a suburb of Auckland (right).
Unfortunately, it took so long to process our arrival into New Zealand that
we did not have time to take our luggage to the B&B as planned, instead,
we dragged them to our tour reservation office and left it there while we
were taking a sight seeing excursion of Auckland.
As things turned out, we ended up with not very many photos of our
tour/excursion as later on that afternoon we lost one of our digital
cameras, along with the photos contained therein. Bummer :-(
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| Museum on Mount Eden. |
Lynda on Mount Eden. |
Auckland's harbor. |
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| The famous Sky Tower (more later). |
We ate dinner in this Indian cuisine restaurant.
The food was delicious -- and healthy -- as always. |
Look at the fuel prices. Diesel is only 2/3 the price of gasoline; in
the US these days it's higher than gas.
(99.9 cts/liter = $3.10/gallon US) |
Auckland's harbor. |
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We had booked a wine tasting tour Waiheke Island, just across
the channel from Auckland's harbor. We took a ferry to the
island, then a guided tour to the winery, etc. Right: Looking
back towards Auckland from the ferry. |
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| Our next tour stop was another winery: Kennedy Point. |
We got one of our fellow tourists to take
a picture of us... |
...and this was the view we wanted as a backdrop. |
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And, of course, we had to taste some wine too! (Left)
Next our tour led us to an olive oil producer, Rangihoua Estate,
where we tasted many variations of olive oil (I didn't know
there were variations to that product!). They gave us some
bread cubes and dipping dishes and into town we went! (below left)
In addition to being a producer of olive oil, Rangihoua owners
were also collectors of antique Maori art work. The two items
below right are made of single pieces of cedar-like wood,
thousands of years old!
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Later that afternoon we returned to the Mudbrick Winery for
lunch. Above, Pete is enjoying the fine dining and the view
out the balcony door.
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An artichoke plant??? |
You know who. |
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A few more photos snapped in the Mudbrick
while waiting for our tour bus to pick us up and take us
back to the ferry to Auckland. |
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Next morning, the 16th, we rode a taxi
to the harbor where our cruise ship, the Sapphire Princess
was docked, just waiting for us to come aboard. |
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