Auckland at last!
[Note to my "followers" -- If you click on any of the photos in this post, they will enlarge to full screen and you can scroll through a slide show of the images -- a lot easier to see!]
So, it finally has come! I’ve arrived in New Zealand after sooooo many months of planning! Everything went smoothly right up to the bio-screening at NZ Customs … My hiking boots, which had been spotless the day before, had a bit of mud on them! Between leaving my lodging in Hawaii and arriving in Auckland, somewhere I had stepped in some mud. Wish I had thought to check them either at the Honolulu airport or at a restroom before going through customs …
So, it finally has come! I’ve arrived in New Zealand after sooooo many months of planning! Everything went smoothly right up to the bio-screening at NZ Customs … My hiking boots, which had been spotless the day before, had a bit of mud on them! Between leaving my lodging in Hawaii and arriving in Auckland, somewhere I had stepped in some mud. Wish I had thought to check them either at the Honolulu airport or at a restroom before going through customs …
New Zealand takes soil contamination very seriously – and rightly
so. Their iconic Kauri
(pronounced Kody) trees are threatened
from a soil fungus that was brought in years ago on the tracks of some
earthmoving equipment. The inspection
officer was nice about it and a quick rinse and I was on my way …
I’ve never been “greeted” upon arrival like this. Edward was waiting for me as I emerged from
customs! Nice way to start a trip – no rush
hour scrambling to figure out where I’m going and how to get there!
I checked in at my lodgings and went looking for
dinner! A short walk and I was at Prego
for a delicious saltimbocca and my first chance to observe NZ night life in
action! They’re an animated bunch and
very enthusiastic when chatting with their mates!
On my way back, I wandered a bit in search of the iconic NZ
skyline. Grabbed this shot with my
cellphone, intending to come back for a proper DSLR photo later in the week,
but evening rain and clouds came moments after this shot and returned each
night I was in Auckland … No worries!
The next morning I
was up at 5am (8am West Coast time) and after a lovely breakfast and some work
on the computer, set out to explore a bit of Auckland. Aside from the challenge of remembering to
look right first then left when
crossing the street, the first thing I really noticed was road noise, or more
accurately, the lack of road noise!
Highway 1 runs right through Auckland and it is amazingly quiet! I’m sure I was drawing stares as tried to
process the trucks and cars passing by at a ¼ of the volume I expected. I didn’t find out how they do it, but apparently,
it’s a combination of special asphalt, tires and noise restrictions on their
vehicles. What would have been deafening
in the states was nothing … you could easily hold a conversation without
raising your voice. Seattle could learn
a lot from this! 
After pondering the freeway for far too long, my next stop
was supposed to be the Sky
Tower – I like to visit the highest spot in a new town to get a sense of
the layout and the major sites (learned this from David Jullian, a Seattle photographer
and Photoshop guru). Unfortunately, the
observation deck was enveloped in clouds, so that would have to be saved for
another day. On to Vodaphone NZ for a
local SIM card.
After getting setup with a local phone# and such, I was off
again to discover the city. Determined
to reach the shoreline, I headed more or less southwest … through the Parnell
neighborhood and finally reaching the port.
Along the way, I came across what I can only guess is a TV or low budget
sci-fi filming. Wasn’t able to discover
much before being chased off …
The port was interesting … they use different vehicles than
I’m used to seeing in Seattle. These
reminded me of some strange “disrupters” (?) from the movie Tron.
At about this point, my phone battery died. I’ll admit, I hadn’t planned for that. I had been more/less consulting my Google
maps to navigate my way to the shore and didn’t have a paper backup … The good news is that the SkyTower is pretty
much visible from anywhere in Auckland and from there I could find my way back
to my accommodations.
I made my first NZ
friend upon getting back to my room.
Meet George.
Auckland was not the most picturesque town for my first day
in NZ, but it was interesting nonetheless and was a great 8-10 mile walk my
first day.
DAY 2 AUCKLAND
Was greeted with much better weather my second day:
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| Reminds me of the Seattle skyline (I counted 13 construction cranes!) |
Started my walk heading north to make a big clock-wise loop around the city. Throughout my walk, I kept noticing that there seemed to be a recurrance of notes/instructions on the mailboxes regarding junk mail ... do these actually work? Does the postal worker actually sort out the junk? I never found a postal worker to ask ...
They have a wonderful walkway around the the north edge of the city and Auckland seems to be a very dog friendly city -- I was greeted by numerous smiling pups out for a walk with their humans. Along the way, I came across my first NZ graffiti:
Even Kiwi graffiti is nice!
Walking through the marine / boat yards, I was floored by the size of this "boat shed" ...
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| Huge indoor boat storage |
Passenger ferries head all over the place from downtown Auckland (didn't spot any car ferries)
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| Numerous passenger ferries heading for nearby islands and across the harbor ... |
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| The proverbial selfie from the waterfront with the SkyTower in the background |
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| Sky Tower: Auckland's version of the Space Needle |
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| A shot through the glass panel in the elevator floor ... |
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| View towards my accommodations in the Ponsonby neighborhood of Auckland |
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| Looking from the observation deck towards the waterfront I walked earlier ... |
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| What determination! Found it inspirational! |
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| Compass at the top of Mt Eden |
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| Auckland from Mt Eden |
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| Proof that I did indeed go up Mt Eden on my trek around Auckland |
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| They use scaffolding for every residential project it appears ... unbelievable amount of scaffolding on every home project I walked past. |
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| My 2 days of walking Auckland -- somewhere between 20 ~ 24 miles of walking over the two days! |
Looking good, mate! So happy!
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