Wellington to Auckland

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This morning after a quick breakfast, Deb and Greg came to fetch us to take us to the airport. I can't believe how fast the time has gone and how many places we have seen and the laughs we have had. We are in a little bit of shock and now we are on our own and hopefully up for the challenge. We all hugged and said our goodbyes and John and I went in to check our bags and get to the gate. It was an easy process I suppose because it was a domestic flight. The flight itself was uneventful--we no sooner got up to cruising altitude than we were starting our descent. Only an hour fight. As soon as we got to baggage claim, we saw our cabbie, who had been prearranged, standing holding a sign with our name on it. On the way to our destination, The Ponsonby House, he told us that the weather was the same every day. New Zealand is in a severe draught and hasn't had enough rain. Down south, there hadn't been any rain for 3 months, but here in Aukland he said it had been 5 months. He couldn't remember a summer where there had been so little rain. The farmers are starting to really get worried. Here in the North Island, the temperature is quite a bit warmer than the South Island.

We got dropped off at our B&B and met Bernadette, the owner of Ponsonby House. She gave us a map and tried to orientate us as best she could. We changed clothes and then headed out on our own to try to figure out the city. We wanted to go down by the water so we took the bus into the city center and got off right by the Sky Tower. It was lunch time so we stopped at a nice little restaurant, The Empire, that had just reopened with a new menu. It was quite good.

Once we finished with lunch, we went to inquire at the Sky Tower Tourist Information booth, bought tickets for the Sky Tower and then booked a Ferry for Waiheke Island for tomorrow. We were contemplating going to Rototura or Bay of Islands but that entailed a lengthy bus ride to both places. We took the elevator to the observation deck and the sites were breathtaking. We were admiring the scenery when all of a sudden, we could see out of the corner of our eyes a man throwing himself off off the tower into a free fall of 630 feet. That happened periodically while we were up there. We also went to the Sky Deck which was higher yet. There were also young children doing a sky walk around the outside of the tower.

After descending back to street level we walked down by the Ferry Building to redeem our vouchers for our ferry in the morning and walked along the pier. The weather was great and we watched all the comings and goings of people, people loading bikes onto boats, business people going to or coming from work. People watching is such fun. We stopped along the way and talked to waiters at a restaurant on the water and promised to return when we were a little hungrier, which we did about an hour later. The restaurant was called the Waterfront and was quite good. After finishing our meal we both decided to go back to our room as we were exhausted. Now that we have the buses figured out and the lay of the land, we will do just fine.

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Photos

Mount Eden
As seen from Sky Tower

Sky Jump
Going....

Sky Jump
Going.....

Sky Jump
Gone

Sky Walk
Young girls getting ready.

Walk along the pier.
A place to cool off.

Comments

[Sharyn Heisick]

New Zealand
Hi George & John I so look forward to your blogs. I feel like I am there with you enjoying all of the sites. Enjoy your travels Sharyn

[peter]

Wow looks like a great city by the water. Sky jump? No thanks