Aussies and Kiwis

On Friday, before heading to the airport, our group Ageless Adventures had arranged for us to take a local tour of Auckland.  View of Auckland from cruise ship upon arrival Since our flight wasn't until late afternoon, we had the morning to see the city. Our tour guide's name was Louise - the only day that our tour guide was not also the bus driver.  Louise Auckland is the largest city in New Zealand with a population of 1.7 million. Louise told us that New Zealand has four Kiwis: the bird, the fruit, the people, and the currency.  We drove around the downtown area of Auckland where our cruise ship was docked. Auckland has a very vibrant downtown area. The focal point of the city of Auckland is the Sky Tower, which is a telecommunications and observation tower. It is 1076 feet tall, which makes it the second tallest building in the southern hemisphere. It is very prominent on all the pictures of downtown Auckland. It contains a casino, two hotels, and bungee jumping, amon...

On Thursday, we docked at the New Zealand port city of Tauranga. Our day started with a tour of the city of Tauranga. We are a little farther north in the North Island now, and the weather is definitely warmer and more tropical.  Tauranga Most people on our tour, as on most of our tours, are from the United States, Australia, England, and Canada. Our bus driver and tour guide for today was Alan. Alan Tauranga is the largest port in New Zealand and is a beach city. There are numerous beaches and resorts with beautiful coastal scenery in Tauranga. Today there were many people out on the beaches, as it is a public holiday in New Zealand. It is Waitangi Day, which commemorates the signing of the treaty of Waitangi, which many consider to be the founding document of the nation. It would be comparable to the 4th of July in the U.S. So we were fortunate to be in Australia for the celebration of Australia Day, and now we are in New Zealand for Waitangi Day, Feb. 6. Our tour started with a ...

On Tuesday, our excursion was in and around the town of Picton, New Zealand. Now if you look at a map, you'll see that Picton is at the northern tip of the South Island of New Zealand. If you recall, a couple of days ago, we were at Wellington, which is at the southern tip of the North Island. To get from Wellington to Picton, all you have to do is cross the Cook Strait - the waterway that divides the North Island from the South Island - and travel west a short distance. But instead we traveled up the east coast of the North Island to Napier. Then after leaving Napier we traveled south, back down along the coast of the North Island right past Wellington and over to Picton. We were wondering why we didn't just go from Wellington to Picton, and then on to Napier and points north from there. We had a lively discussion about that at the dinner table last night. Ricky, Joe, and I sat with Frankie, Donna, and Jessie from the Ageless Adventures group. Our speculation on why the cruise...