Internet not working in our room this morning, so making do with kindle. so no pics for now. Please excuse any typos.
It is now Sunday morning.
on Friday, our day of arrival and first full day, we went by ferry to Devonport across the harbour from Auckland. A fine day walking thru the village, tramping to top of Mt. Victoria, and a fine lunch and drinks - NZ Mata beer, fish and chips, and green lipped NZ mussels in a Thai cream sauce. The beer was like a German Koelsch.
For the rest of Friday, we walked thru Auckland's Central Business District and found a nice place for afternoon cocktails - Mecca. A small outdoor plaza with many relaxing office workers. i had a nice sangria with fresh berries, and Deb had a flat white. No bludgers here.
For dinner, we headed back to the Little India Restaurant at our hotel. A simple meal with Butter Chicken, naan. and rice. then off to bed after offloading our pics. Too tired to blog.
We woke Saturday morning to a light rain. Just had coffee in the room before heading to the Sky Tower for brunch. Thankfully the light rain stopped as we headed out.
We got to the Sky Tower around 11am, an hour before our reservation. We were able to go to the viewing deck to take pics, and watch the jumpers. This is the tallest sructure in the southern hemisphere. Sort of a modified bungie jump, where the brave are harnessed and dropped to the ground from the 1200ft level. not for us. Pics later.
For brunch,eggs Florentine with salmon instead of Canadian bacon in a modified eggs Benedict. Orbit Restaurant atop the Sky Tower rotates about once per hour so easy to get a full view of the Aucklland area while eating.
After lunch,we boarded a train for Onehunga,where we started our tramp across Auckland from the Tasman sea to the Pacific Ocean. A 17km trek over hill and dale. very nice but will write about it later.
Off to Waiheke Island on Sunday...
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
On the plane and about to depart
Nice plane...777-300 w/in seat on demand video. Current movies, tv shows, YouTube, etc. Thousands.
Car, planes, rain, fog, and sun...
The car service driver showed up this dark, rainy morning a few minutes early, though he did drive up to the wrong house at first. A quick ride to the airport, then a short wait in the security line.
Mike's backpack got a second look on the security X-ray, and his "Knifeless" Leatherman drew the attention of the TSA inspectors. A nice purchase at the outlet store a few years ago. It is a Squirt without the usual knife blade. It was a test product for Leatherman, but no longer available. No knife, so okay for carryon!
A nice respite in the United Club where we discussed coffee/espresso machines with the agent.
Our flight to LAX was delayed; connecting via SFO, same plane, but different flight numbers, so we had to get off then back on. No chance to miss the connection!
Uneventful leg to LAX. After a bit of a walk, found the shuttle stop that took us to Terminal 2 for Air New Zealand.
Had to check-in again, and we had to give up our Briggs&Riley rollaboards. To big, too heavy. Oh well, tighter restrictions for carry-on. They let Mike keep the heavy backpack since it was loaded with the electronic gadgets and laptop. They didn't even question Deb's backpack.
We picked the wrong line for security. Though only a few in line, only one TSA agent was checking boarding passes and ID.
Made our way to the Air New Zealand Kuru Lounge. Heaven! A nice comfortable retreat before our flight leaves for Auckland at 10pm.
Plenty of food for lunch and dinner, as well as an open, self-serve bar with soft drinks, wine, champagne, and an assortment of booze for mixed drinks. Free entry as a perk to our Star Alliance Gold membership.
Mike repacked some of our carry-on while Deb attended to important matters. We collected some NZ tourist info, that will come in handy, including a very fine country map, and an Auckland guide.
Mike charged all the gadgets for the long flight ahead, and recharged himself with a visit to the bar.
That's all for today unless something significant arise before we board our flight to Auckland.
A few more pics can be found here:
http://goo.gl/zhXDg
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
The night before...
Left Bailey with the neighbor; he loves it there.
Security system set up and video surveillance is working.
Did online check-in this morning, ad had no problem with Deb's ticket. Mine did have some problems. Seems American Express didn't do something correctly after the last schedule change, and had to reissue my ticket. This took about an hour; fortunately the agent didn't have me hold the entire time. Once he knew what to do, I hung up, and he called me afterwards when all was well. Then I was able to do online check-in. I guess this can happen when you use a travel agent to book a ticket 1 year in advance. I used American Express because I was able to convert points into a revenue ticket and get a 30% discount. Also get frequent flier miles, too!
The adventure begins in the morning!
Saturday, February 4, 2012
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