What a great city, with people to match, we had an excellent day. We arranged with eight other passengers to meet in the ship’s atrium, making a group of ten allowing us to take advantage of the group discount price for the ‘hop on - hop off’ bus. Normal price is NZ$35 per person, discount price is NZ$24 (about US$14) for the all day ticket so it is fairly good value and they have 2 interlinking circuits covering most, if not all, of the interesting locations. In the atrium our numbers had swelled to 14 and around 08.30am we all left together with Izzy out front acting as guide. It was about a ten minute walk to the travel centre to buy our tickets and by the time we got there, our numbers had swelled to 18. There’s a currency exchange in the travel centre (reasonable rates) and there’s also an ATM about fifty yards past the centre. Money was exchanged, our group ticket was purchased and we were on our way. The group ticket comes as one receipt, so all members have to stay together initially until the bus driver issues individual tickets. There was a nice double decker bus ready and waiting for us and we all piled on, upstairs of course, until after sitting 15 minutes on the unmoving bus, the driver announced that the bus couldn’t be started so we all piled off and crowded onto the bus in front (pictured above). Anyway, we were soon underway and enjoyed all the sites of Auckland, I wont go into details, if you’re interested in where the bus goes, here’s their web address www.explorerbus.co.nz .
First picture below shows the Skytower with body falling toward the ground. Second picture shows Izzy and me at Mount Eden in Auckland. Third picture shows group walking around the outside of the Skytower.
By 11.30am we were standing at the bottom of the Sky Tower watching some hapless soul plunge toward the ground from 600 feet above, fortunately he was attached to a wire. The tower www.skycityauckland.co.nz is well worth a visit, NZ$28 (approximately US$15) gets you to the 3 main observation levels for spectacular views around the city and close up views of terrified victims plummeting past the floor to ceiling windows. One of my aims in Auckland was to get a haircut, since it was so expensive on the ship, so I’d pre checked on the internet for a barber close to the harbour area and we headed there next (see post below). It was a beautiful day, about 24 degrees C (about 75 deg.F) and we had a leisurely stroll down Queen Street, enjoying the sights and sounds of the city, I really liked the place, very civilised, helpful, pleasant people and just a general good feeling being there. I looked at property values and rentals ‘one bedroom ocean front apartment US$750 (approximately) per month’, prices all looked very reasonable and I bought a nice golf shirt and bb cap before reaching our next target, Foodtown, supermarket.
Picture left shows ship docked, on right hand side of pier.
We picked up enough supplies (pop, beer, wine etc) to use up our remaining NZ dollars and started back toward the ship lugging our supplies. We walked past a guy with a 2 passenger tricycle, doubled back, negotiated a price in US dollars and travelled back in style, waving at anyone we passed in a queenly manner. It was 05.00pm when we got back on board and after a shower we made it to a quiet main dining room for a quick dinner and on to the Cabaret Lounge to watch a folkloric show presented by a local Maori group. The ship sailed at 10.00pm and we were up on deck for the fabulous deck party with music by Accent, I even got up to dance a couple of times and Jason the assistant cruise director kept everybody hopping with his antics. The city lights were beautiful and we were sorry to be saying goodbye, two days in Auckland would have been preferable. Ahead of us 4 days crossing the Tasman Sea and its’ reported rough weather, I took a seasickness pill.
Additional note for Lorraine: We found and spoke to the Swansons, Greg and Jan, from Texas. Nice couple, they were late back to the ship in Tahiti, because a local bus did not turn up. They had allowed an hour and a half to make the half hour trip back to the ship and after waiting an hour with no bus, they approached a young guy in a gas station offering him money to drive them back to the ship. He refused the money, but bundled them into the car and raced back to the ship, getting them there with 5 minutes to spare. They said they had been prepared to have to fly to the next port if they missed the ship so they insisted that he accept the money. Good thing they made it on time, as we didn’t get ashore at the next port. Rarotonga. Just shows that there are helpful people all over the world.
