Auckland

We can’t tell you much about Auckland. Hunter was tied up with the ICSEI Conference. His session went well and the sessions he attended were worthwhile. I found that the comfort of the hotel and the two days of rain that we had combined to lull me into “rest mode.” One exception was the say we joined friends from home for a lunch on top of the Sky Tower.

Our first day in Auckland we were returning to our hotel when we heard this blood curdling scream … a scream as though she were about to be killed. I looked in the direction of the noise and saw a person hurdling through the air from the top of the Tower. It was, of course, a form of Kiwi entertainment akin to the bungy jump. I was not prepared for this. So when our elevator opened at the restaurant level of the rotating tower and a person flew by the window, I was not phased.

Some of the heroes in the baggage nightmare are our friends Chuck and Susan who with the help of Donald from Foer’s Pharmacy (another hero) hand delivered us an important medication that was prohibitively expensive here in New Zealand.. It was they and their traveling companions whom we joined for lunch. We were able to stretch lunch out to almost two full rotations of the restaurant and got to appreciate this city that has coastline to the east and to the west. About ¼ of New Zealand’s population lives in Auckland, which goes a long way toward answering the earlier question posed here: Where are all the people? They are in Auckland.

This may also explain my reluctance to engage Auckland. I have enjoyed the rural feel of this trip so far. I didn’t WANT to put on my “city armor” and do battle with the world. But the smells of really good Asian food wafted my way, and I did eat a few fine meals one of them at the Green Grasshopper .

Now it is time to head on to the Bay of Islands and back to tranquility.