February 18 HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZEKE
Below is a picture of the rock with the hole in the wall. Some people actually paid money to take a ‘tour’ through it!
We arrived here in the City of Sails at 7:30am. The sail in was very interesting with the fog laying over the cliffs. Below is a picture of the Auckland Sky Tower at first sighting, then just prior to docking.
Notice how clear it became in about 15 minutes. It was absolutely clear when we were at the dock. Now look at the pictures below what happened 15 minutes later. It lasted for about 30 minutes then cleared up and was beautiful all day.
We left the ship shortly after we were cleared by immigration. Our plans for the day were to visit the Auckland Zoo and go to the top of the Sky Tower. The city had ambassadors walking or riding Segway's, and we needed their assistance to find the bus to take us to the zoo. The city bus cost the two of us $6.80 each way, we won’t complain about RTA prices at home. Of course gasoline was nearly $8.00 per gallon. The entrance fee to the zoo cost $36.00 senior rate which is only for residents of New Zealand, but the woman let us in anyway. We walked for nearly four hours, seeing a lot of animals. Below is a picture of the biggest hippo we have ever seen.
Afterwards we caught the bus back to city center and went to the Sky Tower. It is over 1,076 feet tall, the tallest man-made structure in New Zealand and 15th in the world, with view of up to 52 miles in every direction. It has 1029 steps to the main observation level, needless to say we took the high speed elevator. The main observation deck is 610 feet high. Below is a picture of Betty on the observation deck, over her right shoulder is our ship.
We then went up to the Sky Deck which is 772 feet tall. A fellow passenger, Lorna Gray, did the jump from the Sky Deck as part of a charity event for Make A Wish in England. She survived and raised over $5000.
After viewing the city from this height we decided to look for a place to have dinner. We walked around the downtown area but ended up at the Americas Cup Harbor where an actual Americas Cup sail boat is on display. We went to Danny Doogan’s for dinner, they had a special Roast and a Pint for $20. The beers were great and on the beer list. It is amazing what beers cost here, on average they are $10.00 a pint! (However that did not slow Bill down.) We strolled along the harbor so I could smoke a cigar before returning to the ship to catch the show “Haka the Legend Folkloric Show” featuring the songs, music,dance and costumes of the Maori culture. Of all the Pacific islands, I think the Maori culture is the most interesting.
Exhausted from the day we returned to our cabin to watch a little TV before falling asleep. We missed the sail out at 11:00pm, never even heard the departure horn blow. The ship sailed north to do a semi-circumnavigation of New Zealand from the northern end of the North Island to the southern end of the South Island on our way to the Fiordlands for a day of scenic cruising. New Zealand is one of our favorite countries, there is so much diversity in culture and topography.
