Jan 24 - Safely in Auckland

We are now safe and sound in Auckland. Our 16-hour flight from Chicago left on time at 7:30 p.m. Movie, dinner, movie, put the eye shade on. I must have slept some, because when the lights came on, there were only two hours left in the flight. Breakfast and a movie and time to land. Although we had had a couple of episodes of mild turbulence during the night, Doug’s Gravol kept him intact. For those of you who haven’t followed us on our travels, you should know that Doug is very, very prone to motion sickness so planes, boats and buses and anything else that he is not driving are his nemesis. There are going to be a few challenges on this trip. We’ve got one of the big ones behind us thankfully.

The International Date Line is roughly based at the 180° line of longitude and roughly down the middle of the Pacific Ocean. We passed over that line in the middle of the night, so we arrived in New Zealand on Friday, January 24 at 6:30 a.m. New Zealand is currently 18 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time because they are on daylight savings time. After passing through passport control and customs, we rendezvoused with our driver - just like in the movies, he had a sign (actually an iPad) with our names on it. He apologized profusely for the light mist of rain and then for the morning rush hour traffic, neither of which was terrible. We are staying right downtown at the Crowne Plaza Hotel which is actually an upscale Holiday Inn.

We had every intention of freshening up and then going out to explore the city, but by 10:00 a.m., we were both flagging. We crawled into bed and had a 4-hour nap. Much refreshed, we set out to enjoy the day where the rain had disappeared and the sun was shining brightly - temperature 26°C - sweet. The concierge had pointed us to a nearby grocery store where we got water, yogurt, sandwiches and cookies. (Eating at grocery stores is one of our favourite cost-cutting measures when travelling. We carry our own cutlery to aid us.) We walked down Queen Street, the main shopping street of Auckland, towards the harbour. We passed lots of high-end stores (many with line ups for controlled access) - Dior, Gucci, Michael Kors, and so on. We finally reached the harbour. It was hard to actually get to the water because the area is dominated by shipping terminals and warehouses and ferry docks. There is construction everywhere to put in a subway system and to reclaim parts of the waterfront for people. We found a bench and enjoyed our lunch with very envious birds giving us the stink eye. We walked all along the harbour front and finally found a place where we could actually see the harbour. At that point, we decided we’d be wise to get our pasty-white Canadian skin out of the strong sun. We headed back along Queen Street, but on the other side of the street. Auckland,unfortunately, has a big homeless problem, so there are people begging all along the street.

We’re back in the hotel now - Doug is watching the Australian Open Tennis tournament. 8th-seed Serena Williams just went down to defeat at the hands of the 27th seed.

We were both conking out again at 8:00 p.m. Knowing that going to bed at that hour would be a bad idea, we went out for another walk. We headed the other direction on Queen Street and watched lots of young people enjoy the lovely summer weather. We picked up more yogurt and some muesli for breakfast tomorrow morning and then finally called it a night. We walked 14,700 steps for a total of 6.7 miles in the day.

Here’s some information about Auckland:

Auckland lies between the Hauraki Gulf of the Pacific Ocean to the east, the low Hunua Ranges to the south-east, the Manukau Harbour to the south-west, and the Waitakere Ranges and smaller ranges to the west and north-west. The surrounding hills are covered in rainforest and the landscape is dotted with dozens of dormantvolcanic cones. The central part of the urban area occupies a narrow isthmus between the Manukau Harbour on the Tasman Sea and the Waitematā Harbour on the Pacific Ocean. Auckland is one of the few cities in the world to have a harbour on each of two separate major bodies of water.

The isthmus on which Auckland resides was first settled around 1350 and was valued for its rich and fertile land. The Māori population in the area is estimated to have peaked at 20,000 before the arrival of Europeans. After a British colony was established in 1840, William Hobson, then Lieutenant-Governor of New Zealand, chose the area as his new capital. He named the area for George Eden, Earl of Auckland, British First Lord of the Admiralty. Māori–European conflict over land in the region led to war in the mid-19th century. Auckland was replaced as the capital in 1865 by Wellington, but the influx of immigration stayed strong, and it has remained the nation's largest city. Today, Auckland's central business district is New Zealand's leading economic hub.

Despite being one of the most expensive cities in the world, Auckland is recognised as one of the world's most liveable cities, ranked third in the 2019 Mercer Quality of Living Survey.Read more