Sat, Dec 28 - Our Last Day in Auckland and the Journey Home

More Xmas decorations

We debated how to handle today as our flights don’t leave until 10:45 PM and 11:55 PM, but fortunately we found that we can get an hourly rate at the Crowne Plaza when our late checkout time of 2 PM expires, so we’ve purchased enough time to keep us camped in Hilary’s room until 7 PM and then leave for the airport.

 

Bob at the University

We set out after breakfast for the Auckland Museum about 1.5 miles away.  We walked through a lovely park and through the University of Auckland, down a hill and up and up into the parkland called the Auckland Domain which includes the museum on top of a volcano rim with great views.  We went inside and started walking through an amazing exhibit of the different cultures of the Oceania - beautiful fabrics, shell jewelry, intricately carved wooden boat, house and human figures.

Maori boat

Boat sail detail

Bark cloth fine as silk!

Then we moved upstairs to the natural history section and walked through a very dramatic exhibit about volcanoes which, as that is how NZ was mainly formed, is pretty relevant.  The exhibit ends by asking you into a small living room complete with sofas, a coffee table, a big TV set, and a picture window overlooking Auckland Harbour.  The TV is on to a news program about the earthquake rumbles that have occurred lately and how the population of the city has been asked to evacuate.  A volcanologist talks to the newscaster as we watch smoke rise from the water; suddenly the scientist says “it’s starting to erupt!” and the whole room jolts, the lights go on and off, the room jerks again and we see out the window a volcanic eruption from the harbor.  As it gets more violent, a huge ring of black smoke and gas rapidly shoot towards us until everything goes black!!

We emerged rather shaken as it was very realistic! (The exhibit does have a note that it may be disturbing to some individuals!) We continued though the rest of the natural history exhibits and saw lots of the birds we have been looking at over the past four weeks.  It’s too bad how faded bird feathers become over time and how difficult it is to get people enthusiastic about birds from exhibits like this.  The huge moa bird skeletons and models, however, were pretty exciting!

As we left the museum, there was a half size tennis court set up by the front door and quite a crowd…there was Venus Williams playing tennis!!  Not sure what was happening, but that was pretty exciting!  There is a large tennis venue down the hill and apparently an International Women’s Tennis Tournament is about to begin.

Venus !

Bob and I returned to our room and packed up and changed clothes for traveling.  We all walked over to the Art Gallery two blocks away for lunch, as museums and galleries always have great cafes with good food!  After sandwiches and quiche, Hilary and I showed Bob the artworks we had seen on our tour two days ago,  and got back to the hotel to move our luggage over to Hil’s room and relaxed, downloaded photos, etc.

At seven we caught a taxi for the airport. Bob and I checked in, but Hilary’s flight wasn’t listed yet so she waited for that to happen while Bob and I whisked though Security and into a huge retail area where we managed to use up our few NZ$. We ran into Hil and wandered around until it was time for our flight and said our goodbyes as she is flying on her AA miles.

 

Bob happily in his Pod

We boarded and there were our premium economy Pods, at last!! They were great and well worth the extra money. We had a little table between us that can be raised for an arm rest if wanted and instead of a foot rest, we each got a bean bag to put our feet on which was very comfortable! We got large glasses of very good pinot noir and a Peter Gordon (the chef at the Sugar Club) dinner which was very good. We both watched “The Whale Rider” which we hadn’t seen in years and now is much more meaningful with its depiction of Maori life. And then we actually got a pretty good night’s sleep, breakfast and early arrival in LA. We whisked through Immigration, picked up our luggage, and exited Customs quickly enough to catch the 2PM SB AirBus instead of the 3:30PM one we had reserved.

Unfortunately the traffic into SB was slow enough so we couldn’t pick up Maddie by the 5 PM closing time at the Cat House Hotel, I got her today (Sunday) and she’s exploring the house and checking everything out!

Another great trip, another interesting, beautiful country! Many thanks to Hilary for all her great driving, and thanks to both Hil and Bob for blog editing, and thanks to you for reading!!

XXX, Katy

P.S.  Kiwi fact:  Kiwis lay the biggest egg in proportion to their body size of any bird.  Warning: this photo is scary!

Fri, Dec 27 - Cruising Auckland Harbour

Finding a good breakfast café near our hotel seems difficult, but we managed to get enough to eat and on the way home stopped at a department store and found Bob a nice merino wool jumper (sweater) on sale.

We walked down to the harbor to get tickets for a harbor cruise, found they were fully booked, but we could get tickets to the suburb of Devonport, an eleven minute ferry ride away as they run every half hour.  So we set off at one and shortly arrived at this very pretty town built in the late 1800s by shipping captains who wanted to be able to watch their ships sail into Auckland on their way home  from Europe.  

Esplanade Hotel

We stopped in at the Esplanade Hotel, an Edwardian hotel with a French restaurant, so we were able to order sliders made of really good beef with just a little cheese and grilled onions on a delicious little bun - no beet root or fried eggs on them!!

We took the walking tour of the town passing many beautiful ornate Victorian cottages and larger houses, most surrounded by typical Santa Barbara plants in full bloom.  We returned to Auckland and walked back to our hotel and took naps.  Good dinner and drinks at the Aria Restaurant in the hotel - sometimes those hotel restaurants can be surprise you and be really good!.

Devonport cottage

Gelato break 

Thu, Dec 26 - Boxing Day in Auckland

Up at eight in rare sunshine and we set off to find breakfast. The city seemed quite sleepy and quiet, but we finally found a tiny café for our flat blacks and eggs and then walked down to the harbor as the city came to life. 

Bob wanted to get a ferry ticket to the Great Barrier Island, 2.5 hours away, to see if he could get a few more sea birds, but found it was all sold out for tomorrow! Holiday season has started with a bang and the city is loaded with tourists and Boxing Day sales. We saw a line queuing up outside the Swarovski Crystal store with a door man letting in only few at a time, and that continued all day. 

It started pouring as we entered the Ferry building, but then it cleared a bit as we left. We walked along the harbour past some amazingly large super yachts and over to the Fish Market. As we entered the rain let loose once again! The market was beautifully laid out and we could identify many of the unusual fish we have been served. There were the local crayfish (spiny lobsters) for sale at $99 and in the next bin frozen Canadian lobsters for $25 each! Can’t figure this one out! 

The rain diminished as we walked through the harbour and returned to the hotel to figure out what we should do for the next three days. From our hotel window we can see the 1076’ tall Sky Tower two blocks over. The restaurant we are going to this evening is the Sugar Club on the 53rd floor. At that level is also a four foot wide platform with no railings encircling the tower like a halo on which one can pay a bundle to be attached to a thin cord and walk around and be encouraged to lean out over the abyss! Also for over $200 one can jump off this platform attached to a wire. From our hotel room we actually saw one person flying down until he disappeared from sight! 

Sky Tower

Bob was researching more cruises, so Hilary and I walked a few blocks to the marvelous Auckland Art Gallery and were able to join a tour as we walked in. The Gallery recently reopened after building a beautiful very modern addition of wood and glass that somehow smoothly attaches to the 1887 French chateau original museum. We toured galleries of 19th century NZ art to the modern day, illustrating the different and developing relationship between the Maori and the European cultures and displaying some lovely artworks. 

Auckland Art Gallery

We returned home to rest and dress up for dinner. We walked around the block to the Sky Tower and in a very complicated combination of escalators and elevators managed to get up to the 53rd floor and the Sugar Club, the latest restaurant of Peter Gordon, a Kiwi, London-trained, avant-garde chef.

Duck Breast with Liver Cone

View from our table with the walking "halo"

All the dishes are starter sized and the same price. The idea is for each person at a table to order 2-3 dishes each, share (if you want) and therefore get to taste many different ingredients and combinations. Every plate is very complex with unusual ingredients. We had, for instance, five-spice duck breast with smoked polenta, walnuts, eggplant shitake salad with a chilled duck liver in a small cone and lamb loin with goat cheese beignets, pea puree and cherry tomatoes. All very good and interesting, although I think he uses too much smoke. 

Bob's Dessert

Bob had the most amazing dessert: white chocolate mousse with basil and tomatoes, olives and celery that had somehow been sweetened but retained their character and were amazing with the chocolate! We really enjoyed the dinner with a most amazing view of Auckland and all of its harbors/boats, etc. The other nice thing is that though this is an upscale restaurant, it was without pretension and the service was friendly and excellent. 

Sky Tower Viewing Deck

The price of the dinner also included admission to the 60th floor observation deck so we went up there in the last light of the day to see the beautiful complex waterways and islands in the Auckland harbor. 

Wed, Dec 25 - Christmas Day from Dunedin to Auckland

Merry Christmas breakfast!!

We had a jolly Christmas breakfast, complete with Christmas crackers with paper crowns provided by the very nice hosts at this motel, packed up and left at 9:30.  It was raining, of course, but we headed back to  Hooper Lagoon on the south side of the Otago Peninsula and birded from the car seeing lots of ducks, Stilts and Royal Spoonbills.

Royal Spoonbills ruffled in the wind

Immature Pied Stilt

One more colorful bus stop

At 11 we drove into the city of Dunedin and parked in the central downtown hexagon consisting of a park surrounded by shops, cafes and churches and a statue of Robert Burns, as Dunedin was settled by Scots and still retains a close connection with the home country.

It stopped raining as we walked down George St, the main shopping boulevard.  There were many old buildings fixed up and painted pretty colors with shops on the first floor.  We walked up to the University of Otago looking for a café for lunch but could only find a couple small Chinese ones.  We returned to the city center and found one bar café open and had a pizza and an Christmassy open face turkey sandwich for Bob.

Downtown Dunedin

Dunedin's ornate railroad station

We gassed up and drove out to the airport, turned in our very comfortable Rav 4, and checked in to our flight to Auckland.  We took off at five and immediately lost sight of the land as we entered the clouds.  We had reserved seats 18F, 19F and 20F so we could all get good views of as we crossed almost the entire country, but the only clear views we got were when we crossed the Cook Strait which were remarkable but short.

Marlborough Sounds

We landed in Auckland at 6:30 and got a taxi downtown to our hotel, the Crowne Plaza, and thanks to Ms Hamlin’s many hotel points, got very nice rooms on the 26th floor.   We met in the bar for a light dinner and had drinks, chicken tenders for Bob, BLT (with fried egg) for Hil and a ½ dozen oysters for me!  Yumm!  We’re going to sleep in and explore Auckland tomorrow.

Tue, Dec 24 - Christmas Eve with Albatrosses

Pouring rain this morning and fierce winds, so after breakfast we Skyped with friends in much drier Arizona before we bravely drove off to do a little birding in the estuaries around the Otago Peninsula and then drove out to Taiaroa Head at the tip.  We passed fishermen’s cottages, weather beaten old boat houses, and colorful bus stops.

Bus stop

Boat house

There is a Northern Royal Albatross colony at Taiaroa with an albatross center/café/gift shop to protect the birds, conduct research, and allow the public to see them.  When we arrived the wind was blowing a gale and rain was pelting down, but we got inside, checked out the gift shop, and then our noon tour began.  A very knowledgeable docent gave us a lecture with a film and then offered us very large rain coats to put on which protected my backpack and camera. We followed her outside and up a steep hill to the point.  Finally we stepped inside a hut with windows overlooking a windswept bluff and there we saw five Royals nesting in the grass!  They weigh 9 kg and have a wingspan of 3 meters!  They lay one egg every other year and take 12 months to raise their young, and then take a year off cruising around the Southern Hemisphere’s roaring 40s before returning to this point to mate again - typically with the same partner.  There are 33 pairs nesting here, the only mainland nesting area anywhere.  We also saw a large colony of Stewart Island Shag who build their neatly rounded nests out of guano and grass which looks very damp and uncomfortable particularly in the rain.

Battling the  wind up to the Albatross viewing blind

Northern Royal Albatross

Stewart Island Shags on Guano/grass nests

At their café, we had a lunch made up of chicken/cranberry/brie sandwiches, a large basket of fries and a cube of custard cake for dessert.   We returned home to Skype family in South Dartmouth who are also in similar rainy though at a chillier temperature.  We spent the latter part of the afternoon reading and watching the rain.  

There is a neat old restaurant across the street called “1908 Café” which we wanted to try, but we have six lamb chops plus other stuff that we bought for dinner yesterday, so we got a late checkout from the assistant working the desk and plan to cook an early Christmas lunch tomorrow and use up our food.

Hil  made a reservation at 1908.  We walked over at 6:30 and had a very nice dinner of perfectly poached local salmon on a lentil cake for RRZ and me and bacon-wrapped chicken with pistachios and a beetroot puree for Hil.  We got a note from our motel owner asking if we could pay tonight.  He turned out to be a very charming, humorous Englishman and told us all about coming over here and running a motel for the last 2 years.  He also said that they are full tomorrow - pretty amazing on Christmas day  - and could we possible leave early (normal time) instead?…and he would buy all the food we wanted to sell  - that sounded like a very sensible solution as we want to drive into Dunedin and see some of the sights before our 5PM flight to Auckland, so we hauled the chops, asparagus and pinot noir over and got $40 back!

Hil's Chicken

9:30 and still light with rain and rainbows!

Mon, Dec 23 - The Southern Scenic Route to Dunedin

We made breakfast at our cottage, packed up and were off at 8:25 AM.  We’re crossing from the west coast to the east by driving along the southern coast of the South Island,  We dropped due south from Te Anau and drove through beautiful valleys surround by snow-capped mountains until we reached the coast of the Great Southern Ocean.  There we pulled off at an overlook and watched miles of waves crashing in from cold Antarctica.

Under rapidly thickening clouds we drove east to Invercargill and by-passed the town of Bluff where the ferry to Stewart Island takes off, and where we would be going had we planned the trip differently as there are a lot of birds we need there! 

We drove through farmland more like the areas of the North Island we had previously explored: rolling Marin-like green hills and pastures.  We were looking for gas for the car but the occasional gas pump in the first two small villages we saw were empty.  Fortunately on our third try, after lunch, we found a station that still had some gas for us. 

We drove along a river lined with tiny picturesque buildings that are white bait shacks - sort of like ice fishing shacks -  for the tasty treat that one sees on menus all over New Zealand.  On Lonely Planet’s recommendation we turned off at Niagara Falls, so named by a surveyor with a sense of humor, as the falls hardly measure up!  LP starred the Niagara Fall Café, a hippie restaurant with a very cheerful waitress.  Bob had a lamb burger and Hil ordered a chicken/bacon salad, and I, priding myself on being an adventurous eater, ordered a Whitebait Fritter. (We have seen Whitebait fritters appear on menus all over the South Island so it seems to be a local special favorite - not that we had seen anyone eating them….)  As a child, my father would occasionally net up tiny minnows, we called white bait, which he would fry up and serve as a salty snack, so I was expecting something similar.   I received a large patty which, when I opened it up with my fork, turned out to be a mass of tiny, white baby eels held together with an egg batter!  Adventurous as I am, I was revolted!!  I managed to eat most of it, however, as I didn’t want to insult the national treat of NZ, but really!!
**OK, Goggle says NZ Whitebait is the fry of galaxiids fish - they just look just like eels!

Niagara Falls Cafe

Whitebait!

We continued east and turned off on the road to Nugget Point and, as it was three o’clock, we walked down the steep path to a hide from where we hoped to see the Yellow-eyed Penguins returning to their nests from feeding in the ocean which they do, according to the sign,  from 3-5 PM.  And there was one cute penguin waddling up to the rocks and hopping up onto the grass.  Several more followed and we got great views of the spiffy penguin with bright pink feet!

It was getting late so we drove straight to Dunedin, turning off to the Otego Peninsula where we have a reservation at the Portobello Motel.  We drove along the northern edge of the  peninsula, right along the coast.  We had been told that there was no grocery store or restaurant open on Monday night and we would have to bring our own food.  The problem was that the coastal route doesn‘t connect with any towns that have grocery stores, so we cut up to the high road that runs along the spine of the land, up 1000’, and returned to the base of the peninsula and found a mega grocery store where we stocked up with supplies for two dinners and two breakfasts.  Then we set off again on the coastal route, finally arriving in Portobello at seven…..to find out that there IS an open restaurant right across from our unit…the owners forgot to update the information they recently sent us to “summer” information.  A little irritating to say the least, but we moved into our two-bedroom unit and I cooked dinner.  Tomorrow it is supposed to rain, so we’ll see how successful we are in seeing the several birds we want.

Yellow-eyed Penguin