crazyscot

Auckland, Parnell

Another day of initial plans being thrown away when a better idea presented itself.

An unschedled chat with the motel owner(?) yielded some useful intel about the local bus services and places worth visiting. Rather than spending $35 each on a bus tour day pass, we took the Link bus - which happens to connect a number of the popular sites - for the princely sum of $1.80 per ride, and found ourselves mooching around Parnell. (The money saved went on a rather nice Italian-style pizza lunch!)

Auckland's crinkly topology continues to amuse, amaze, shock and awe. From Parnell we walked down and up again, to the impressive rose garden and park on Mount Eden. Eventually - despite the best efforts of the Auckland traffic - we got back across town to pick up the hire car, which turns out to be a rather smart Mazda 3 in electric blue whose display says Hello when started up. It's practically brand new with only 5k kms on the clock.

We move on tomorrow, so I'd like to add that we've been pretty happy here at the Acapulco Motel - the location is hard to fault (good central suburb, near the motorway, shops nearby, easy bus ride to town), the owner is friendly and very helpful, the furniture is good quality and the kitchenettes well appointed. The price is very good for what you're getting. What it isn't is air-conditioned; if that's what you want you probably need to pay top dollar for one of the major hotels downtown. (They did provide a floor-standing fan, which helped.) However, if there's one thing that bugs me about the room, it's that all the seating is leather. This is not great news in very humid conditions like we've experienced. To be fair, though, while these sorts of conditions may be unsurprising in summer (and we're in the middle of a deep La Nina cycle, so all bets are off anyway) I doubt they are year round. I mean, there is a heater, so maybe the rumours of the existence of winter in these parts aren't entirely false and malicious...

Auckland, Devonport, Sky Tower

We set off for town this morning minded to take one of the explorer/sightseeing bus trips, but instead ended up persuaded by a different fish: a package comprising a return ferry ticket to the North Shore with a local (minibus) tour when we got there - with splendid views across the Hauraki back to the CBD. The inner harbour ferry is fast and efficient, taking a shade over ten minutes to cross, but somehow I feel much more satisfied - we've seen and done a bit more of greater Auckland than we would have!

Devonport has a very distinct history, being the home of a Naval post - in amidst the practically incessant chatter of the commentary there were some nuggets. Since the Harbour Bridge opened in 1959 it is "only" 25 or 30km by road from downtown, but given what motorway traffic is like it's easy to see that the ferry remains attractive for linking the North Shore peninsula with anywhere reachable from the Britomart transport exchange (err, so that's limited, given how widely the place sprawls). Apropos of nothing much else, we saw a strange tree there.

After the tour we went to the viewing decks on the Sky Tower - the tallest building south of the equator at over 1000'. Many photos were taken. The tower also offers a base jump and an outside walk; I had been considering doing the skywalk, but you're not allowed cameras or other loose articles, and I don't seem to have contracted the Kiwi thrill-seeking bug (yet???) so I decided not to. There's always a next time...

C just went to bed and I shall soon... Can't help wondering whether we've overdone it a bit today, but we didn't really think that we were pushing it at the time. Some recalibration may be required. Tomorrow we pick up the hire car, and may well do that bus tour by way of taking it easy. It's been pretty humid today and looks the same tomorrow though - hope it's air-conditioned...

Auckland.

We slept well.. while the motel may sit on a thoroughfare and look a bit dilapidated from the outside, it's well decorated and appointed within, and the bed is good. A positive review is starting to write itself in our minds.


Having gone to bed before sunset out of necessity we found ourselves awake before dawn, so went for a walk to try and catch the sunrise. We were not successful; it was overcast, even trying to shroud the top of the Sky Tower. That said we did see something of the early morning life in this central Auckland suburb of St Mary's Bay - the predictable mix of dog walkers, early-morning bakeries and people getting on with their business, in what looks like quite a good suburb: the cars are smart and clean, the properties are generally well kept, one house even seeming to have left laundry out to dry on the verandah overnight. The people are very friendly, too.

Breakfast TV this morning is providing reports from Queensland waking up to count the cost of Cyclone Yasi with some very scary footage and radar traces.

When they say that Auckland is built (sprawled?) on a number of volcanoes, they're not kidding. There are dozens of them, and the city positively undulates because of it. Remarkably three-dimensional, much more so than (say) Edinburgh with its wide-area hills that you don't tend to notice so much.

Today's activities have not yet been planned but that's probably next ...

Oh, and they're right: the good Aus/NZ standard suncream does make you look like a zombie. Mind you, that's how we've been feeling so far, so nothing much new there ;-)

Cambridge-LHR-SFO-AKL; mooching around.

C and I have arrived in Auckland, and not before time. En route we had the slightly surreal experience of telling the US immigration guy that we were going to be in his country for all of four hours, only for him to ask us where in the US we were staying. Something about droids and programming comes to mind, though it might have been a clever ruse to find out if we were telling the truth and/or probe any language difficulties.

United and AirNZ both have swish AVOD entertainment systems on their 777s, but United's execution kicks NZ's into next week. (Note to self: complain to AirNZ that their IFE GUI is frustratingly slow to respond, and they have too much programme choice - or, if you prefer, that it's terribly poorly indexed and hard to browse.) AirNZ's economy seats seem slightly smaller than United's, but - amazingly - my back was not sore on arrival in NZ, which was not something I could say during the couple of hours we were in SFO.

The biosecurity screening at the airport was noticeably straightforward and fast even though we weren't sure how to answer some of the questions. (Our flight landing around 0530 - and slightly ahead of schedule at that - might also have had something to do with it.) They have a screening step where they ask you about the answers on your landing card to identify what they actually want to take a look at. After an inspection of my walking boots - my efforts in cleaning them the other day were appreciated - they then x-rayed everything anyway. (We've watched Passport Patrol back in Blighty from time to time so knew what to expect.)

And then we caught the bus downtown and saw this. I mean, I know it was a long flight, but a 40-foot high rubber duck?! No, we weren't dreaming; TV FOUR commissioned him to promote their relaunch.

Today we only got as far as mooching around the CBD a little (with our heavy bags), finding the right bus for the motel, checking in, hosing ourselves down, and getting in a few supplies. (The heat and humidity were dreadfully sapping; I think opting for a car with air-con will prove valuable, at least here on North Island.) The making of plans for tomorrow has been belayed until we see what state we're actually in. C has already gone to bed and I am not far behind her, even though it's still light. so sleeepy....