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Published: August 6th 2007
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A Truly Remote Place
After our crazy time in the Sydney airport we were pleased that the Kiwis (New Zealanders are known as Kiwis) let us into the country with zero problems. Since we had our exit tickets printed, thanks to Qantas extreme concern for our welfare, we were allowed in with no problems at all.
Every once in a while on this trip we have an awakening about our situation. After traveling for a while you can become desensitized to the coolness of the places you are traveling to. Sometimes we show up in a new city or town and feel like it’s just another place and can become complacent about actually experiencing everything that the world has to offer. To combat this problem we try to step back and remind ourselves how fortunate we are and how cool a place really is.
If you stop and think about New Zealand it is one of the most exotic destinations an American can visit. As an American you can get to almost any place in the world without having a layover. If you can’t actually get to a place, you can at least get very close. But
New Zealand is different. It is the only major 1st world destination in the world that you absolutely have to get to from some place else. It is impossible to get here without flying first to at least one other major country. The closest major country, Australia, is separated by more than 2 hours of flying and nothing but water. Pretty amazing!
We got our new rental car, a Toyota RAV4, and drove into Auckland. Unlike other “bigger” cities we’ve driven through, Auckland is a pretty easy place to drive, specially considering it’s the biggest city in New Zealand. We got to and checked into our hotel with no problem. Instead of running out to see the city, we spent the rest of our day resting. With the time change and the early awakening for our 7:15am flight, we were pretty pooped.
Lion Beer Brewing New Zealand is a pretty laid back place and we have adjusted to the pace easily. There isn’t a ton to do in Auckland so we could take it easy and take our time. We spent our morning taking care of some toiletry needs and getting maps of New Zealand for
later driving needs and then setting out to see the world.
Auckland has a decent transportation system with a cheap bus line that does a big loop of the city. We hopped on near our hotel and figured we’d see part of the city prior to our arranged tour for later in the afternoon. We eventually got off in the Newmarket area and stopped to get lunch.
When lunch was done we still had some time to kill so we found a shaded bench and spent an hour enjoying the cool weather. Kel read sections of the Lonely Planet to me while I laid with my head on her lap on the bench. Sometimes these quiet moments are the coolest part of a day.
Our major activity for the day was a 1.5 hour tour of the largest brewery in New Zealand, the Red Lion Brewery. Red Lion Brewery is responsible for bottling the two most popular beers in NZ (Red Lion and Steinlager) and NZ’s largest export beer. They have also done a great job of setting up a full brewery tour that is informative as well as fun and interesting.
The tour consisted of
a twenty minute history of beer complete with animatronic figures from history that resemble some of the cool things at Disney. Then you get a view of beer drinking and laws related to it in New Zealand’s past. Finally, before seeing the actual brewery, we got a thorough view of Red Lion’s past marketing and sports sponsorships.
After the hour of background we finally got a chance to see the brewery. We got a chance to see them bottling and packaging Stella Artois (a Belgian beer bottled by Red Lion for the NZ market). Then we got to do the really fun part, tasting. They had a whole bar set up near the entrance area. The guide taught us the proper way to pour a beer, including the correct amount of head, and then set us free to pull our own (unlimited) from the draft. While we enjoyed a few beers we got a chance to meet a couple from Seattle that were traveling as a “baby-moon” since they were pregnant and preparing to have a baby in October. We had tons of fun meeting them, drinking and sharing stories.
With the tour completed we jumped back on
the bus to return home. Once back in our part of town we decided to get some take out and watch some TV in our mini-apartment. It’s great to not eat out sometimes!
Harbour Tour Auckland reminds me a lot of England due to the weather. It tends to be cloudy here and cool. We’ve gotten a bit of rain everyday since we arrived and Tuesday morning was no different. By the time we awoke it had been raining during the morning but cleared up just in time for us to head out for breakfast.
Our big plan for the day was to take a tour of the harbour via ferry. After breakfast we booked our trip and then killed some time in the afternoon wandering and reading in our room.
The Auckland harbour consists of multiple ship berths and some beautiful scenery. Unlike Sydney, Auckland has a ton of coastline in and near the harbour that isn’t developed leaving a major city that is surrounded by beautiful coast. Once out of the city itself the dormant volcanoes and beaches near and outside the harbour are gorgeous.
In the harbour itself are some of
the largest and most beautiful yachts and sailboats we’ve ever seen. Kiwis are big into sailing and are proud of their boating heritage. New Zealand is the only country in the world to have more than one consecutive America’s Cup sailing races outside of America. This passion is visible almost everywhere you go in Auckland, it even showed up the day before in the Red Lion Brewery tour in their ads and sponsorships. The only sport that Kiwis love more is Rugby and their national team, the All Blacks.
A Cultural Note from Kel . . . One of the big things I’ve noticed about NZ so far is how comfortable they are with their dual heritage of the European explorers (English and some Dutch) along with the native NZ tribe, the Maori. While English is the established language, the Maori language is prevalent in naming, Maori culture is entrenched in NZ identity and each of their national rugby games is began with the Maori war dance. We saw the video at the brewery (Red Lion is a primary sponsor for their team, the All Blacks) of the war dance and it was scary - I would bet
that any international team that comes against the ABs has their work cut out for them! More than Australia, you see lots of people of Maori heritage on the streets and their presence is seamless with the NZ folks who have European genes. Very cool. As an American, I realize we’ve never really figured out how to bring the Native American culture into everyday life for the USA and appreciate the NZ ability to do so. They’ve had their challenges, but I’m impressed with the results.
On the tour we met a couple of New Yorkers who were finishing a 10 day trip in New Zealand. They were really cool and gave us some great information about the south island and some places we should visit. It’s too bad we met them the day before they were leaving because we would have definitely spent more time with tem if we could. We love making new friends.
The rest of the day was pretty restful and too dull to really write down. Tomorrow we are off to Rotorua, the north island’s capital of adventure fun. I’m sure there will be a ton of great pictures of Kel doing wild
things. I will personally be staying firmly away from anything wild.
Hope you are all doing well back home!
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Haines
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Mote Shirt
Love the Mote Marine shirt. Glad to see it's still holding strong. Sounds like you guys are making the best of your trip! I just got back from Costa Rica and loved it. Hope to see you in Italy!