Blogs from Auckland, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania

Auckland looks a lovely city through the rain showers which have been constant since we arrived. At least we arrived here before the cyclone. We have had high alert weather warning, set for 7pm tonight! Sadly all excursions were cancelled so no sailing for Roger. Yesterday we had a look around a few blocks near the wharf. Ship is docked very close to downtown. Today we tried to go to museum but closed due to weather so went to Sky City and up the Sky Tower. Some super views despite misty conditions. Hopefully Hop on hop off bus running tomorrow so can try museum again. It has natural history as well as discovery of island and war memorial. Bay if Islands cancelled too( apparently 12 m waves there yesterday!) We are due to stop in Tauranga ... read more

We hadn’t planned to visit Waiheke Island today. It was a ‘considered’ spur-of-the-moment decision. We were at the waterfront to enquire about ferry tickets to Waiheke tomorrow. However, we had seen the ‘not-set-in-stone’ weather forecast that a storm front could be hitting the upper North Island, including Auckland, tomorrow, so it made sense to visit Waiheke today. After purchasing our tickets, we still had nearly an hour before boarding the ferry, so we explored the waterfront. We had the good fortune of coming across a group of Maori dancers practicing. We watched. We asked if we could take a photo or two. Not a problem. We continued our wandering and took a few snaps of the city from the wharf edges. The ferry took about 40 minutes to sail to Waiheke, a 92 sq km island ... read more

Kia Ora everyone. It's now Wednesday morning and back on ‘home’ soil now after another relatively good flight back from Honolulu yesterday. Nothing really to report about the day….started a bit earlier than others…..finished packing up…most had been done the evening before. Got the ‘baggage man’ up with a trolley to pick up ALL the cases while we went to check out…only to be told our debit card had been declined again.. Knew there was more than enough $US on it to cover what was required to be paid so suggested to the nice lady that it did need a PIN number…..Golly gosh now it worked. I’m beginning to think they don’t have PIN numbers on cards in the US…seems a bit weird. Anyway got it all sorted and paid. Loaded the Chevy Impala up with ... read more

Bonjour à tous, Comme vous pouvez le constaté je suis bien à Auckland. Je n'ai pas d'explication, au texto que j'ai reçu concernant cette panne technique. Je n'en ai pas demandé non plus, beaucoup trop de difficultés à comprendre les australiens. Vol à l'heure, tout ce qui à de plus normal. Juste une bonne crise d'angoisse pour moi, avec ce sms. Le repas du matin, était franchement pas terrible, mais celui pour Auckland, immonde. La boîte repas occupe une moitié de tablette d'avion, c'est dire si c'est copieux. 2 saucisses genre cocktail, une cuillère à café de purée, idem en petits pois, et rien d'autre, même pas de pain. Il ferait mieux de ne rien servir. Comme je vous l'avais dit à Auckland, j'étais prit en charge par un chauffeur, pour me conduire à l'hôtel. RDV ... read more

When you have a dinosaur lover in your family, you know you have to do a road trip to see the real T-Rex skeleton as soon as it arrives at Auckland Museum. You make plans, sort out accommodation and pile two adults, two kids and two dogs into the car and go. Along the way, all you hear about is the T-Rex. You learn more about it than you ever needed or wanted to know. You are over the T-Rex half an hour into the very long journey. But you comfort yourself with the knowledge that it will all be worth it once your six year old grandson finally sees a real dinosaur. You arrive at the museum. It takes ages to find a carpark which doesn't please the impatient dinosaur lover in the backseat. You ... read more