A day (or so) in Auckland.

It's a fair trip from Bay of Islands down to Auckland- more than four hours.And it takes a bit longer if you are searching for fuel when you think you are running out!.
But we got there in one piece, and booked into a good hotel on the quayside. So close to the docks that when we awake the following morning we were greeted by a view of two cruise ships outside our window, the Sea Princess and P&O's Aurora. The latter was on a round the world trip, Sea Princess was out from Sydney and touring NZ.

Walking around the harbour we came across a number of very expensive sailing boats, some worth maybe a couple of million dollars or more. This one was just arriving and docking, probably 120ft long and a similar height, with a crew  or around twenty. We saw them take down the sails as they arrived, and expertly dock.The owner and his wife, ( or was it mother?) watched from the deck cabin, and then emerged to come ashore while the crew washed the boat down and prepared for a night in the dock.


We took the ferry across the bay to Devonport, a nice little town, touristy and probably dormitory for Auckland business people. It's just a ten minute sail across, so it must be an easy way to get to work and home again.

From there we had a great view of the Auckland skyline, although it isn't the capital of NZ it is probably the largest city, and much of the financial and trading work goes on there. In the centre of the CBD is the Skytower, and earlier we had taken a trip to the top, I can't remember how high it is but it is bl**** high!
Anne doesn't do heights but just this once I managed to persuade her to go up, a picture to prove it too!






A great view of the whole city, and as it was a clear day we could see for many miles around. Auckland is built on an isthmus, so there was water almost all around us, Devonport can e seen across the bay in this picture, with the docks below, and to the left the very expensive boats. It is a very busy harbour, pleasure boats, yachts, ferries and cruise ships come and go all day





Along the waterside there are some very attractive old buildings. This one was built in the 1890s as a ferry terminal, and still serves that purpose today. Of course nowadays the docks are surrounded by flats instead of wharves, the world over they fetch a premium beside the water.

And so it came to the parting of the ways, we were flying out early the next morning back to Melbourne, David and Mildred later back to Perth. Our last meal together was a good one, and we chatted about our four weeks afterwards.

We have had a great time together seeing this beautiful country, there was very little that we did not enjoy immensely. Time was against us - we could have taken another month and not seen it all, even though by comparison with Oz it is a tiny country.


I think we will be back to see a bit more sometime, perhaps a little more leisurely next time. However now we have a few more months in Oz to look forward to.

This, by the way, is the 200th entry in this blog, so I'll leave you with a pic of a wicked van we saw in NZ...........