Jan 12 – Crossed the international dateline and arrived in Auckland on Thursday morning about 7am. We flew on a 787-9 Dreamliner, but our seats in coach were nothing close to “dreamy”. These new planes are even more packed than the older planes. While I thought we had purchased Premium Economy, I found out the hard way that there are two kinds of premium economy….one section with extra legroom and another with additional amenities. I mistakenly bought seats with extra amenities. Not sure what the extra amenities were but we would gladly have switched with someone for the extra legroom. I had such a small space next to a window that it was impossible for me to extend my legs in any direction. It was extremely uncomfortable, especially considering it was a 14 hour flight. Oh well, live and learn…
I also managed to lose my money clip with $260 in it. Our best guess is that it fell from my pocket and under the seat at some point while I was squirming around trying to find a way to relax.
On the plus side, clearing customs in Auckland was one the easiest processes I have experienced. We were thru in 10 minutes. We were both glad to get to our hotel to recuperate from the exhausting flight. The Park Hyatt in Auckland is a fabulous property that overlooks the Harbor. Several of the sailboats that race in the Americas Cup race were docked out front and along some docks just past our hotel. These incredible sailboats are on another level from anything I have seen in the past.
Just arrived….exhausted but glad to be here!
Jan 13 – We spent the day walking around the city with my brother Jeff and his wife Julie. We ended up walking 5.5 miles. Auckland has some very steep streets so our walk was not exactly a “walk in the park”. Afterwards, we we ate some oysters and prawns at at The Shucker Brothers Restaurant. In most cases, the food was very reasonably priced, especially since $1 USD = $1.57 NZ dollars. The one exception was the cost of oysters. A dozen oysters was $69 NZ dollars, or $44 USD.
Later that evening we had dinner with our good friends Ted and Marsha at the Oyster and Chop Restaurant, which is also on the harbor. Tomorrow we set sail for Fiji.
The view from our balcony at the Park Hyatt
The 1076 ft high Sky Tower…one of the many places in NZ where you can bungee jump!
Amazing boats, including some Americas Cup Sailboats. The Catamaran below was 80ft long.
That’s a 45 foot Hatteras next to the “Janice of Wyoming” sailboat. Janice is 130 ft long.
Longtime since I have seen a working public phone booth!
