Exploring Auckland

I love it when a city "puts their lipstick on" for my visit. It really just means that the weather was lovely during my visit, but I like the visual. 

Auckland Harbour

We spent the morning meandering through town, spending most of our time looking at boats. :)

Pretty pleased to be taking in all the boats

Biggest recliner EVER!

Soaking in some sunshine!

Jackson's dream sailboat

I love the color of the water!

It was a truly gorgeous day so we just kept walking and soaking it all in. Auckland is a big city, but it isn't that big. It also felt really safe to me. There just didn't seem to be corners you turned and thought, "whoops, shouldn't be here!" The entire town is under construction, though. It is as if they said there can be no expansion anywhere else until they finish work in Auckland because we saw almost zero construction throughout the country until we got here. They are building new high-rises and putting in an extended subway system. I'm sure in 15 years (these people don't move quickly) these projects will be complete and it will be just a wonderful place to live!  

The ferry building

We decided to take a ferry out the Mt. Victoria in the early evening to climb up and get some good views of the city. We always love seeing a city from the water and this was no exception. What a gorgeous skyline!

The skyline from the Harbour

The skyline from our hike

This was actually a pretty easy hike so I'm sure a piece of Jackson was disappointed. ;) We even saw another schnauzer on the way up. SCORE!

sweeping views

Such a gorgeous place!

Petefish.

Evening light 

Sunset on the way back to town

We hung out on the little island for a couple hours before making our way back to the CBD (downtown) for some dinner. We opted to have Mexican, again, because we knew it was delicious. That was after Jackson stopped in at the club room for some free drinks which may explain why he didn't have his eyes open in the photo below. ;)

Mexican food (again!)

Tower jumper (Auckland)

Geysers!!!

We headed out for the day and went to explore the little downtown area of Rotorua. It was actually pretty cute and was far enough away from the geothermal to not smell. Score!

We got weak and needed "American" coffee

We spent a bit of time people-watching before heading to Te Puia, the geothermal park. It was a bit pricey to get in ($30 USD each), but since the big geyser did go off for us so all was well.

geothermal activity

Thinking about erupting

I love the water color!

They still use the steam to cook today!

Petefish.

YAY! It erupted!

Petefish. (again.)

PŌHUTU GEYSER

Mud pots

Totem poles

The park was beautiful

They still use this boiling water to cook today!

A typical hut

A view of the park again

Jackson hanging in the hut

A Grace Coomes look-a-like holding the national
bird, a Kiwi

We spent a little over two hours exploring the park before deciding we'd had enough and walking back to the hotel to get our car and grab some lunch. We grabbed food and headed out to a park to have a little picnic. It was lovely.

An old bathhouse, now a museum

"PIT-ah PIT" picnic

First time watching croquet

We were able to snap a quick photo on the way out of town. Doesn't it look like a typical American town? So weird!

See what I mean about looking American?!

We made the 3 hour drive back to Auckland, got the rental car returned (after a big hunt for a gas station) and took an Uber into town. We enjoyed our Uber driver. It seriously feels like sometimes that is the best way to meet locals! 

Views of Auckland Harbour

We are staying at a Crowne Plaza and have access to the club lounge. We stopped up there for drinks (Jackson) and a few snacks before heading out to explore town a bit.

BEST MEXICAN FOOD IN NEW ZEALAND

We heard that there was a Mexican place right by the hotel that was amazing so we stopped in. It was SO good!

The Sky Tower

We wandered around town a bit longer before retiring for the evening. We're looking forward to a couple of more days exploring the "big city."

Videos from Rotorua

Making our way to Rotorua

We had a slight change of plans and took a quick early morning flight from Wellington to Auckland. The fuel prices here are INSANE! It was actually cheaper to fly (our tickets were $50 each with luggage included) instead of making the 8 (!!) hour drive as we'd originally planned. We ended up saving about $300 by flying and renting a car in Auckland to make the 3 hour drive to Rotorua instead of the 5 hour drive from Wellington with a one-way rental car return to Auckland. It is about $60 USD to fill a TINY car's tank here and the roads are so curvy and hill that fuel economy just is not there.  

Trying to use a payphone- HA!

No travels are without adventure, though. We landed in Auckland and found that Enterprise's location was not an on-airport location. It was about 2 miles away and required a phone call to get a shuttle. That would normally be fine except our phones don't work here. We had to use a payphone for pretty much the first time in likely 20 years. It was HILARIOUS. 

We eventually got our little car and made our way down to Rotorua. The initial drive into town is just like driving into an American town. It was so strange to see a McDonald's, Burger King, Subway AND a Wendy's all right next door to each other in a small town in New Zealand. It turns out the Wendy's is new and they're amped about it. Too funny! 

Getting stocked up on water #Americans

Rotorua is known for its geothermal activity and its redwood forest. The geothermal activity makes the whole town smell of sulphur. It takes some getting used to. It turns out we never adjusted- ha! Jackson thought he just smelled badly for a bit which made me laugh- a lot. I love a good redwood so we took a long stroll through the woods. It was quite pretty. Their silver fern trees are really something!

Silver ferns

Maori sculptures

An easy trail! An easy trail!

The North Island (much more than the South Island) is very committed to keeping its native culture, the Maori, alive and well. All of the signs are written in both English and Maori. A lot of Maori still live in the Rotorua area so it felt very authentic there. It was pretty interesting. 

We decided to go to a nice dinner which isn't something we'd done much. We went to a Latin American restaurant that we'd heard good things about around town. It was quite good! In a huge compliment, their chimichanga reminded me of Chi-Chi's back in the day. YUM! I don't think a ton of Americans make it to this area so our waitress got a chuckle out of our "accents" while ordering and conversing with her. Too funny. :) We're just not used to being the ones with "accents" I guess.

YUM!

The hotel did have a geothermal hot tub that we had to try out. WHOA it was HOT! It got to about 110 degrees Fahrenheit. We had to let our feet float to the top because the bottom so hot we couldn't handle it. The locals like it even hotter. I kept saying if it were any warmer we'd have "people stew" being served! :) It was quite the experience! 

Our room had two beds which was odd. Jackson threw his stuff on one so I just slept in the other. It turns out he picked the wrong one. His bed reeked of sulphur. It was a stink pit! I couldn't believe it when I climbed in with him in the morning for a snuggle. We quickly moved to my bed which was without smell. Oh man, we just laughed and laughed about that one. Again, he thought he just stunk. It was amazing. I think I'll laugh about that for years to come! 

Final day in Wellington

We splurged and had breakfast in our fancy hotel this morning. It was...not worth it. :) The food here just leaves something to be desired. We decided that we'd better get a move on so we headed for Mt. Victoria to give her a climb. Guess who picked that activity. :)

I love a well-worn trail, though!

WE SAW A SCHNAUZER ON THE TRAIL
THERE IS NO GREATER JOY!!!

Looks like we made it!

A very compact city!

Our day we a bit cloudier than the day before so the views weren't quite as awesome. We really thought the city looked like a mix of San Francisco and Honolulu. 

A little city beach

Shark wall!

We made the mistake of stopping in at their famous (free!) museum when a cruise ship was in port so that was a short visit. We did learn about earthquakes while we were there, though. Wellington is due for a big one shortly, they say. That is kind of creepy if you ask me.

We headed back to the room to catch the college national championship football game. I was distraught at the results. Jackson loved it. Typical. We ventured out again to a little restaurant near the hotel and had what is quite possibly the worst meal I've ever not eaten. I took two bites and just could not do it. Jackson ate his meal and I was sure he'd die from it. (Author's note: he didn't die or even get stick. He's got a stronger stomach than most.)

We naturally visited the sauna and pool again because what vacation is complete without a little aquatic fun.

In other fun news, I got these adorable photos of Ella (my Mom and Guy's new miniature schnauzer puppy). She's just a doll!!

Ella goes to work! 

Watching her big sisters play!