THE ROAD TRIP January 3 to January 21, 2025
Liz, Jane, Janice, Lesa from Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina
Daytona Beach to Atlanta to Los Angeles to Auckland. (3 days!) Home was christchurch To Auckland to LA to Atlanta (and snow!!) to Daytona Beach (all on January 21, but a loooooong day). Dodged a bullet on getting out of ATL. Jane slept in ATL one nigght and got a hotel in Atlanta another night. How MISERABLE after a 2 day trip!!
Tour Guide Constance Gervasi (15 days) and Matt (for 1 day)
Sure, we look all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. The five of us met up in Atlanta Airport. Jane, South Carolina, was new to the group and was my college roommate. Lesa, North Carolina, was new to the group and Janice’s college roommate.
We sailed through LAX and on to a 12-hour flight to Auckland (pronounced by the locals, like Oakland).
We were all spread throughout the plane and we all got varying amounts of sleep.
Auckland has an affinity of putting very large penises on their male carvings and we got our juvenile kicks out of it.
Janice blatantly stole the blanket and pillow from Delta (I would have hidden it.) And hauled it from city to city. It finally got dumped before heading home.
The country is EXTREMELY cautious of what gets brough into their country, rightfully so, once we heard about all the invaders to their country. They were VERY afraid of getting stink bugs and would have made us unroll out tents and sleeping bags if we had them. They were very worried about bringing foreign dirt into the country and they had us so scared we almost pulled out all our shoes for them to inspect. We showed them our tea, coffee, gum, salt, snacks and had to swear we had eaten ALL the turkey jerkey before getting off the plane.
We thought we were in the clear until the dogs appeared. Gratefully we passed!! Otherwise there was a $400 fine.
Sometime during the trip we talked to a man from Minnesota who declared nothing and a dog insisting he had something. It turns out in his backpack was a little stem found at the top of a banana. Luckily they did not fine him.
Our transport showed up and took us to the hotel — The hotel was not prepared for our arrival until 4 PM. UGH!!! it’s horrible to show up and have to wait hours for a room. They were full so we couldn’t even book rooms. We all took turns brushing our teeth in the hotel bathroom and set off to see Auckland — while our suitcases sat out in the open for all to steal. They did not get stolen.
The five of us set out to check out the harbor where 3 of us were going to take a ferry for e-biking on an island the next day. As it happened more than a couple times on the trip, Liz and I were walking ahead, three people behind us, and then, poof, they were gone. Liz and I continued to the water. The street near the hotel was food court alley. And the Christmas tree in the courtyard was still up January 5.
Liz and I got into our rooms by 12:30. The current inhabitant of Lesa and Janice’s room decided on a late check-out and Lesa and Janice hung out in the lobby before getting into their rooms.
I think this is a take-off on 7-11 and its always fun to see how different the food looks.
Jane, Liz and I went to the walking food tour of the city.
I’m always impressed with walls made out of cages of stuff. In this case it was oyster shells.
These are “farm raised’ green-lipped mussels. People don’t eat these but they are there in the harbor to clean the water naturally.
Introduction to a new cola unavailable in the US.
Liz was happy to have Jane and I join the tour since Jane and I weren’t drinking and we really were squeamish eating oysters and mussels — all the more for Liz!
This red fence and gates go for miles down along the water.
Interesting architecture.
The food tour after the seafood was great. Fruit, crackers, cheese, sweets. Of course The White Lady is most popular, as our White Castle/Krystal is, about 3 am, serving the bar crowd.
These candies were delicious and too difficult to choose only three!!
This was Day 1 of a jam-packed trip!
Jane and I had a private city tour for Day 2, while Liz, Janice and Lesa ferried to Waiheke Island to e-bike around it.
This was my arty photo of us waiting for pick-up. The ceiling was mirrored.
We saw the marina, the Auckland Harbour Bridge and the ritzier parts of town.
Stopped at Mungauika, ancestral mountain.
This spot was to defend the Harbour against the Russians in 1880. It had secret tunnels under the hill.
The north portion of Auckland.
Mt. Eden is a caldera — where the top of a volcano blew off and left an indentation. It had beautiful views of the city. For New Zealand being summer, it wasn’t warm enough for me!
The botanical greenhouse was fantastically beautiful. The pink flowers on a vertical chain above reminded me that I had seen them somewhere. Butan? hmmm. Then I realized I saw them at a resort in Cairns, Australia. That makes sense — the country next door.
This is Gagan, our City Tour Guide. He had read the book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” and is trying to claw his way out of poverty. He wrote his first book that is basically “Cricket for Dummies”. We wished him well.
Here is a game of cricket in the park outside the Auckland Museum.
We were scheduled to go to the Rose Garden, but since we were at the Auckland Museum, we decided to have Gagan drop us at what they call the war museum.