Auckland

When checking in with Aerolineas Argentinas at the the Sydney Airport, we were asked if we minded taking an Air New Zealand flight to Auckland; the AA flight was “very full” which I took to mean overbooked. We accepted the airline transfer, but had to hustle as we now had less than two hours to check in, and clear immigration and security. We got to the gate with about twenty minutes to spare, so all was well. We arrived in Auckland about ninety minutes earlier than originally scheduled.

We took a group shuttle to the hotel in Parnell; the shuttle is a large, shared van that drops off people at their homes or hotels and tows a small luggage trailer with a clam shell lid.

Our hotel is located in the up-scale suburb of Parnell and our room on the fifth floor has a great view of the harbor and downtown Auckland. There are many excellent shops and restaurants within easy walking distance, so we have everything we need in this quiet neighborhood.

On Friday we took the Link Bus (runs in a big loop around the central areas of Auckland) downtown and wandered about visiting the Viaduct Harbour and the Sky Tower. The tower is the tallest structure in the southern hemisphere (328m) and has several lofty eating and observation levels. RA decided to skip the 40 second ride to the top, so I headed up to the Sky Deck to get a bird’s-eye view of New Zealand’s largest city (1.2 million). Very impressive!

Even more impressive (I think) was the Sky Jump, a cable-guided base jump from one of the decks to a bulls eye painted on a platform on the ground. We watched several of the jumpers from the ground, and when I was on the Sky Deck watched a couple bodies go hurtling by the deck’s window!

We took a short walk on Saturday morning to the the Domain (a huge green space/park near downtown) and visited the Auckland War Memorial Museum. The ground floor is devoted to Maori (the people living here when the Europeans arrived) and South Pacific Island displays complete with a Maori cultural performance. Five and a half hours after entering the huge building that has the appearance of a Greek temple, we headed toward the hotel, sitting down for a well deserved dinner along the way.