Starting out in Auckland

We started this trip on January 16, 2006.

We flew to Auckland, New Zealand. It was a nine hour flight. The seemed short because I watched so many movies (three, I think). The flight left HNL at midnight. We arrived in Auckland on January 18th (lost a day because of the International Dateline).

We jumped on the shuttle which conveyed us to our hotel, Hilton Auckland. We arrived at the hotel around 10:30 AM. Naturally, the room was not ready, even though we had asked for an early check-in. So we had a snack (antipasto plate) at the lobby bar. Here is a shot of us waiting for our room to be ready:


We spent a bit of time in this lobby. Pretty boring, but it was still much better than sitting on the airplane.

When we finally got to our room, we were pleasantly surprised by the spacious room and the huge terrace. Here are some shots from the terrace:



This is a shot of the building next door. This building houses apartments and larger suites for the hotel. This building was related to the hotel that we stayed in.

That evening, we went to dinner in the hotel. The Rack of Lamb was highly recommended. So, Dick ordered that. He said it was oddly prepared and just not very good. I can't remember what I had to eat.

The second day in Auckland, we took a morning bus tour of the city highlights. The afternoon was suposed to be a three-hour boat cruise. The bus tour was pretty boring. We drove across a bridge, then went back over it. I am not sure what the purpose of the drive was. Maybe, it was the city view from the bridge. I did not get any good shots because the bus was going pretty fast and the windows were dirty. One of the things that bothered me about the tour was that the driver was also the tour moderator. He also sped a lot. I was glad to be sitting mid-section on the bus.

Then, we went to an extinct volcano and got about 10 minutes to take some shots:

<shots from the volcano here - cannot upload from my stateroom>

Then, we went to a War Museum. The first floor had Maori artifacts and history. The second floor had dinosaurs and related exhibits. The third floor had WW II artifacts and other histories. We wandered around the first floor. But, we have already seen many other Maori related places on our other tours of the South Pacific. So, we opted for a snack.

When we left the Museum, a huge downpour started. It started to get really cold! I think the temperature dropped to about 55 degrees. Also, the wind was really blowing! The temperature felt more like 35 degrees! BRRRR!

Because of the rain storm, we cancelled the boat tour. We opted to go see a Penguins, <need name here> exhibit. It was really crowded. I got a lot of shots of the penguins. Unfortunately, I could not use a flash and the plexiglass was not very clear.

<shots of the penguins here - cannot upload from my stateroom>

There was also a fish tank (with sharks, fish, sting rays, etc.). We stood on a moving walk way which snaked under the fish tank. I tried to get some shots of the sharks, but none came out too good. There was a huge tiger shark that I wanted to snap a shot of. However, I only got the barest shot of him.

<shots of the sharks here - cannot upload from my stateroom>

Fortunately, we were able to call and get a cab to pick us up!

That night we went to Cibo's for dinner. We read about the restaurant in a travel magazine. Dick ordered Duck Confit which he said was really great! I had some sort of fish dish. However, with out pepper or sauce or rice, the fish was pretty bland. It was a John Dory.