City of Sails

Sailing into Auckland

The noise began a little after 6 am and so we witnessed the sail into Queen’s Wharf where the captain had the ship kissing the pier at exactly 7 am as promised.

Ed got up a little later and we went for a quick breakfast. At 8:45 during breakfast they had a ship’s drill and the simulated fire was in the galley near our breakfast site. So we saw them in all their safety garb with all the staff in life jackets and at their stations. It is impressive and amazing how they all come together to do this drill.

Finally we left to start our day.

Hop on Hop on bus

We found it stops about 2 blocks away so we headed there and found it leaving about a block before we got there. A wry, overly sunburned tiny lady was there to sell us tickets and give us suggestions and advice. There are two routes here which cover 14 local attractions. It was a memory jogger for us as we went by many sites we had visited here before such as the Aquarium where they have the cutest penguin exhibit. Mt. Evans was clearly open last time we visited; this time it requires a hike up the hill. At the end of doing one circle with the two routes, we returned to the ship for lunch in the pig trough area. It is astonishing do the choices and how huge those plates are.

Later we went out again with the plan to pick up the hop on hop off again and missed it because it left 5 minutes early! We saw it pass by. So we hiked up the steep hill to the skytower area and walked around eventually winding up on queen’s street where I thought I had finally found a connector for my iPhone and iPad that would allow me to do some transfers between those devices and the PC. I needed a female USB end with a lightening end. What was given to me was the male with the lightening end. Sigh… I’m still back where I started. At least it didn’t cost too much.

The weather was one of those where first you were hot, then you were too cool. I sweated and preferred the cooler option. IT did sprinkle a little but nothing that stopped you from doing anything. It has been overcast all day.

Eventually we wound up in the high end: Gucci, Prada, you get the picture.

There weren’t really many things worth photographing and the camera is really heavy very quickly. My back does not like all this even though I carry a backpack.

I think, like LA, there is every nationality here. I saw an elderly old man beautifully playing his shamisen on a street. It was lovely.

Currency exchange

We only have 2.70 NZD on us. Ed feels naked without local currency but 3 ATMs rejected him. We used credit cards for everything and out of habit in the late afternoon when he started migrating to another ATM, I asked him why now did he feel he needed local currency. He thought about it and decided not toget any and indeed we were fine without any. The only time I wanted some handy was to tip the shamisen player.

Architecture

I’m still fascinated by it. One person called one style Bay Villa. When whites first moved here, most were Victorian but the styles have evolved over time into a lovely style with lots of fru fru on the wood work. The other styles are mostly 70s and/or stark, flat,concrete like structures with little design or charm imho.

Driving on the wrong side of the street.

Yup. Glad they are doing it and not me.

Connectivity

We do have access to cellular data here and we are up to date EXCEPT for 38 apps that seem not to want to download and are hanging up other things on my devices. So in Sydney I’ll probably pop for an internet café to get everything up to date because after that we leave civilization for a while again. We were able to FaceTime several people. Nancy said not to listen to ANY news US or international and to plan to stay away for at least 4 yrs.

Dinner

Our head waiter is from Romania and since there were not many people at dinner since we don’t have a curfew until 9:30 pm, we had time to discuss the politics and economy of his country. I have an interest in it since Lisa and I took the River cruise from Bucharest to Budapest. It was interesting to learn his perspective and fill in many blanks in my knowledge about that region. As in many countries, our business people go in and create a situation where they take over the natural resource but it didn’t work in Romania under Coucescue (sp). However it probably will now. I recommend the book Confessions of an Economic Hitman if you are unclear about what I’m referring to.

Haka

The All Blacks, the NZ team is known for performing the Haka before they begin their games. A Maori group came on board tonight to perform native songs and demonstrate uses of sticks and such in defense. But the highlight is always the Haka which is memorable for the bulging eyes and extended tongues used during the dance along The members of this group had beautiful voices and great harmony. They obviously enjoyed doing these native dances and with the noises created by slapping skin. A narrator explained everything sand the dancers created the mood very well.

I took photos and videos but I suspect they will lack a lot of emotion in the two dimensional format and again I wonder if we will be able to upload any of it comfortably.