Made it to Aulkland...finally!!

---

Little did we know that the trip to the ATL airport was going to be indicative of the long journey ahead. There was a bad accident on the expressway, so with the bad traffic reports, Matt, who graciously agreed to take us to the airport, drove us his favorite back streets he uses when going to his south ATL office....after 24 years, we saw areas of ATL previously unknown to us. It proved to be scenic and we got to the airport in plenty of time...thanks Matt.

We knew this trip was going to prove to be an expensive proposition, so we agreed to whatever it took to get the best airfare. We are including several domestic flights in NZ and AU, so the total airline ticket got complicated. It included AtL to Chicago to San Fran to Aulkland. The flight to Chicago was on time and uneventful, short layover and we were off again on time. In SFO we had a six hour layover, so we hopped on BART and went down to Powell St. to look around and catch a quick bite for dinner at a little diner we went to years ago.

The trip to Aulkland is about 13 hours, but Air NZ is quite nice and it really went pretty quickly considering. Matt put together a gig of MP3s, so that really helped as I settled back to sleep/rest. We arrived in Aulkland at 5:00am, so Ruth and I just sat planning the day as Hertz was going to charge an extra day if we picked up the car early. I quickly learned getting a simple cup of black coffee was not going to be easy. They want to put some kind of foam or whipped cream in all their coffee (expesso).

We needed to return the car in two weeks at Christchurch around 9:00am, but when Hertz said we could have a 59 minute grace period we checked out our car at 8:01am, also rented a cell phone...#[phone]. We could have saved some money by renting a sim card, but Bellsouth locks our phones so that would work. Got in the car and just like our trip to England, first thing out of the parking lot is a round-a-bout in the road...wrong side of car, shifting with left hand, wrong side of road, and rotating clockwise...Ruth knew to lay low with any back seat driving. I hope we make thru the trip without popping the passenger (left) side front tire...it is going to take a beating!!!

We started with a drive thru one of the many public greenspaces. They are many and amazing! People obviously enjoy being outside, walking and jogging with their families and dogs. Several of the parks had sheep running loose..assume it saves on gas to mow the grass. It's an interesting statistic that New Zealand has the same population as metro ATL, but 10 to 1 ratio of sheep to people. We then headed for the Aulkland Museum, since it started to sprinkle. It's a wonderful natural history museum, we learned a lot about the Maori people and started to see how great the people are here...very friendly, outgoing and much more laid back. As always, we are always on the lookout for flowers, and we found a delightful wintergarden in one of the parks.

We drove to the hostel, which was in a great location downtown, then walked down to the water front to watch the boats, (Aulkland is the "city of sails") and eat dinner. Got back to the hostel and I think we turned in around 6:30pm...room air conditioning was cold (which we like), so we really slept great...11 hours worth. A few places offer "filtered" coffee, and I've learned to ask for Flat Black and then just add water. There was a Starbucks next door, so Ruth and I sat down to plan our day.

We thought we'd get the driving done early before the traffic got bad (remember I'm driving and shifting backwards) and headed over to some old volcanic hilltops. The bright green hillsides against the blue sky were gorgeous. Then it started to sprinkle, (a pattern we're beginning to pick up on). We looked over at the city skyline across the bay and saw a beautiful rainbow, ..we took this to be symbolic for it's going to be a wonderful trip! These beutiful parks were previously military outposts, with cannons still in place, that were to protect the seaport. We then headed for the quaint community of Davenport, (I think?? I didn't bring the travel guide down here to the internet cafe, so may mispell some stuff.) The houses were an amazing combination of old and contemporary architecture...I love the diversity...again an expression of the people here. The Aulkland city commercial architecture also shows a free spirit, which I really enjoy.

We continued to drive around with an anticipation of what next. At one point we stopped at a small sign indicating a path between houses to a public greenway. These are everywhere; in forests, along the sea, alone lakes. Then we saw a sign in one of the villages announcing an arts and crafts show, so we stopped. The booths at the entry were bead ncklaces, dolls, etc. so we thought this wasn't for us until we spotted a booth with some woodwork. The most wonderful older woman greeted us and pointed out her husband's work in Kauri wood. Kauri I think is their national tree and is thought of as our coastal redwoods...huge. Apparently 30-40,000 years ago, forests of these trees fell over and were covered with wetlands. Eventually the climate and water level as changed and these trees were discovered, amazingly preserved. They were both originally from England, met in South Africa, and visited NZ, only to fall in love with it and it's people and have been here ever since. We shared too many stories to put in this log, but they reminded us the world is full of special people.

Our drive contiued on where we found ourselves at a deadend, but some funky mailboxes and another the the small park signs tweaked out interest, so we stopped again. The walk and the houses we found along the shoreline were wonderful retreats from the real world.

Our drive back to town took us thru another little community, a stop in a pub for dinner and some beautiful views of the city skyline at sunset...tomorrow were off to Rotorua and it's "Yellowstone" type of landscape.

---