Arrival in Auckland, NZ

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Wednesday, February 27th.
We arrived in Auckland, NZ this morning at 6:00am (New Zealand time) after a 12-hour flight from Los Angeles. The flight was on Qantas Airlines and was generally a smooth flight the entire way. Each seat had the individual TV screens so it allowed a great deal of selection of entertainment. We were fortunate and had a row of three seats for the two of us and that was great for sleeping (okay, at least for Erin, not Dennis).
Upon arrival at the airport we were met by a wonderful man, Dea, who guided us through immigration, to get my wheelchair and find our luggage (okay 3 of the 4 pieces have arrived so far), to baggage services, customs and to the tour guide area. It is a small airport but when several planes come in at once (and ours had 400 passengers) then it can get quite busy and hard to find things. We saw the Holland America Sign, but no sign with our name. The guys there - from all different tour companies - started making phone calls and stopped anyone that possibly looked like they might be looking for two guests with the name Cavit. What great care and concern from a group of people that really had no reason to help, but fortunately for us they did step in and help. Finally we were headed to a bus when a man came up and said we were to be picked up by another company - one with a wheelchair equipped van. Nice idea, it is a shame the guy had a sign with our name written in pencil and was apparently standing on the other side of the exit from all the tour company reps. But we were on our way to the Sky City Grand Hotel. Upon arrival we were met by Allan, the Holland America Rep, and he is really a nice gentleman. He gave us our paperwork and we went up to our room. The room is nice - handicap accessible room. Probably one of the nicest bathroom set ups for the disabled! The safe wasn’t working and within minutes a young man was up to fix it. The maid stopped by and asked if we needed her to tidy up since we had showered upon our arrival - great service!
After a small lunch at a café across from the hotel it was time for our two-hour tour of the city of Auckland. Allan met us and took us over to the bus for us to meet our driver, Rob. Rob was a nice young man and seemed to know a great deal about the area. He answered questions with ease, but of course the accent was a little tough to understand at times, especially when he was talking about a city, group of people, etc from NZ. But it was a nice tour. We went down by Viaduct Harbour and saw how active the port is. The city is shaped by 49 volcanoes and surrounded by more than 50 islands. We saw the view from Mt. Eden where you get a panoramic view of the city. We also stopped at Mission Bay, which looked a lot like any small shopping area on the coast in the US. There was a very nice park on the beach which you could tell would be packed on a summer weekend. The kids are back in school here so it is quieter now at the beach.

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