Livermore New Zealand: Auckland

We haven't had internet for the last few days but paid for an hour this am (12/13)

Our flight on Air New Zealand was wonderful night and day difference from our experience on American Airlines. There were no fees for baggage, two meals (free), and a lot more flight attendants who actually wanted to help! The seats had a free individual entertainment system with games, TV shows, and movies. The flight only took nine hours fifteen minutes-not twelve.

After only sleeping a few hours on the plane everyone was tired but excited. We arrived in on December 11th at six am local time, but it took us a long while to get through customs because of all the other people in line. We then took a mini tour around Auckland. For being such a large city it is quite nice. The Sky Tower (like the space needle) is the most recognizable feature of the central city. The wharf has a mix of shops and restaurants on one half and a ton of commercial shipping on the other. We went to the Mission Bay suburb and walked on the beach and found a ton of shells. They were having a triathlon and we watched some of it while eating some breakfast. We then went to a very cool suburb, Devonport. It reminded me of Ireland, no chain stores-just local book stores, toy stores, etc. It was very tidy and well kept with each business having its own distinct facade. The kids played at a local park and made some friends with the kids there before we walked to the end of their pier.

We then went to yacht club and walked around a bit before heading to the Auckland Domain-it is the city’s oldest park. It has a lot of gardens and unique trees. The highest point has the Auckland Museum. It houses the Auckland War Memorial and Museum. We saw lots of Maori cultural pieces as well as floors on natural history, New Zealand wildlife and history, and information on the wars New Zealand fought in. The kids favorite section was the interactive/hands on part which had lots of bigs and animals and microscopes!

We went to the Harborside Restaurant and had a nice sit down late lunch/early dinner. Everyone tried new things like barbecue scampi, habuki etc before heading to sleep pretty early.

December 12th: Despite the overcast day we had a great morning with no rain. We were told by a local that the weather is unpredictable here in the early summer and calms down in mid-December. Breakfast was Kellog’s “Sultana Bran” aka Raisin Bran (sultana can mean seedless raisin or concubine of a sultan-we were betting on “raisin” when we bought it), toast, and a bag of kiwi fruit. We went to the bank and activated our bank account before heading to Albert Park. Lots of fun trees, fountains, flowers, and statues. We then toured University of Auckland and its cool clock tower before heading through part of the Auckland Art Museum (we focused on the New Zealand artists as the kids were starting to get hungry. The staff there were incredibly helpful and really talked to the kids to try to get them to understand the art.). After some hands on art in their activity room we had lunch and tried a “lolli-cake” which I had never heard of (it was multi-colored with lots of pink, green, and blue hues under finely shaved coconut. Brody and Gabriel loved it but Tara was not so sure.

Today is December 13th and we will check out of our hotel in Auckland and go to get a rental van to drive to Kelly Tarlton’s Arctic adventure and then to Thames on the Coramandel Peninsula.