Friday, September 26, 2014

Day two.  Or is it three?  We left on the 25th and arrived at Auckland on the 27th.  So we think, just exactly happened to Friday?  Never even saw one minute of it.  Just gone.  Think about it.  Seems just a little weird.

We arrived in Auckland at about 5:30 AM.  Way too early.  But here we are.  Daylight dawned with temps in the upper 50's or low 60's.  After all the customs stuff we grabbed a cab to get to our Air BnB stay for the day.  Note:  do NOT use taxis in Auckland.  Hideously expensive.  Not to mention that our Bnb host indicated that the driver had probably jacked up the price.  No wonder you don't tip them.

Anyway, our Air BnB host, Trevor, kindly met us at the early hour (about 6:30 AM).  He and Deb are very nice.  And his place has quite a view:
View from Trevor's House - Harbor in distance
  Of course, we gave up on a taxi.  Trevor gave us instructions to take the city bus, which was only a couple of blocks away.  With the help of the driver, we figured out how to get close to our destination, the conference hotel in the downtown.  Just a bit of walking, mostly downhill.  It seems that hills are a definite part of this city.  Saturday morning.  Very quiet downtown.  Took a couple of snaps;





We wandered around downtown, checked out the location of the next BnB place that is smack downtown.  About this time, we were beginning to wilt - too little sleep - so we located the transport center and managed to figure out just how to get back to where we started.  And thanks to a number of people along the way who volunteered help.

Back at the house, and a nice surprise.  Trevor and Deb left us a nice bottle of NZ wine to relax this evening.  Should really help sleep to come.  We have to take care tomorrow for the time.  Turns out that tomorrow NZ changes to daylight saving time.  And we have to get to our transit spot by 8:00 AM.  We'll make it work.

First impressions:  Air BnB holdings are infinitely better than our first experience.  Auckland seems a bit dowdy.  Not dirty, exactly, but not really "dressed for the ball".  But the people we've met more than make up for that.  David observed that the buildings in the city reminded him of Australia - kind of old time colonial.  Very new modern buildings (check the pictures above) alongside those old turn-of-the-century (the 19th - 20th century) dowagers.  All in all, we are really looking forward to seeing more of this city in a couple of weeks, and also our next stop:  Wanganui.





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