New Zealand to San Francisco

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Day 30

Early start to get to the airport at Dunedin. This was some 27 km outside the centre in the middle of nowhere. We returned the hire car and were under way on time, arriving in Auckland just before noon. As our bags were checked through to San Francisco we had about 6 hours to spare so again took the city bus into the capital and went through two very nice parks to visit the National Museum. While this had lots of bits on geology, volcanoes and earthquakes again, we concentrated our time on the exhibits dealing with the New Zealand wars of 1840-6, 1863-8 and 1870-4. We think that’s when they were. We also looked at NZ involvement in the Boer War, WW1 and WW2 and Vietnam. It rained while we were inside so that kept us dry as well as informed. Then back to the airport to leave for San Francisco on time.

Day 31

Was a repeat of Day 30 as we arrived in SF at about 10.45 am on the same day we left Auckland, having crossed the International Date Line! Found our way to our hotel, close to Union Square, after a train ride from the airport. Decided to explore by foot to see how far we could get. This was a big place again, a bit like Hong Kong only with Americans. So imagine noise and bustle and smell. Streets were teeming with people though we suspect that most were tourists. Americans seemed only to be begging at every street corner. Went to look at Union Square where the people were ice skating and where a large Christmas tree and other decorations were up. Wandered off through Chinatown and then on down to Fisherman’s Wharf, where there were sea lions lounging on one of the piers. They were always there. Got a glimpse of the Golden Gate Bridge but it was far off in the distance. We were disappointed to learn that the Alcatraz visit tour was fully booked for all the time we would be here and that the queues for the trams were extraordinarily long! We would have to think of other things to do. Tired after the trans Pacific flight so early to bed after dinner (burgers and chips) in an American diner.

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