We arrived in Auckland, New Zealand around 7:00 AM on Fri., February 6th. Mind you for those on the East coast of the US we are 18 hours ahead of you. Therefore, we missed Thurs., Feb. 5th altogether. So when I post a blog, the blog date and time (posted) will indicate the (US) EST, but I'll indicate the date and time I am writing the blog entry.
On the flight from Los Angeles to Auckland (scheduled to leave at 8:30 PM but didn't leave until 9:45 PM), which by the way is a 13 hour (not counting the 75 minutes we waited after getting on the plane for people from a late British flight) all at night flight . We had dinner and a breakfast, snacks, slept (Carmen more then me - I was to cramped to sleep for very long), read and Bob watched 2 movies and 6 episodes of "2 and a half men". All in all the flight over wasn't all that bad really, considering the cramped quarters and length of the flight. Thankfully we were both in aisle seats.
After getting to the airport, we went through immigrations (the line reminded me of a Disney attraction, a very long line of people zig-zagging back and forth until you got into the queue for "next". (Just to let you know, we are at the hotel so they let us into the country.) Then we had to go through the agriculture inspections. We have chocolate covered raisins, peanuts and cracker jacks with us - we have to declare them. Anyway, we got to keep them, but we had to tell three different people that we had them.
We met the tour guide, got on the bus and then headed for the hotel. Now remember, by the time we get to the Hotel in Auckland it is about 9:00 AM on Friday the 6th, but on the East coast of the US (where we normally sleep) it is 3:00 AM, so we took a couple hours nap.After our nap, we headed out for a walk. There are several things going on around town today. First the Chinese New Year celebration is still going on and
also sail boat races (the Louis Vuitton Pacific Series to be exact) are on day 2 of a seven day race schedule. (The USA entry is the BMW Oracle Racing Team and I think are 2-0). We ended up down by the water and around the yachts. S
ome of them are very big and very expensive. We were able to see several of the racing sail boats that were still in the water.We left the waterfront and headed to the Sky Tower that is in Auckland (you can see the tower in the first picture above - it looks like the space needle in Seattle). It is reported to be the highest structure in the Southern Hemisphere. It is 328 meters tall. We went up the tower and as you can see from the pictures, it is quite an amazing sight.
Oh by the way, you can jump - no not bungee jump mind you- but free fall off of the observation deck. I took a picture of someone jumping. Carmen told me to jump because my insurance was paid up, but our schedule is tight today and we are leaving to get back to the party on time.
We met the the tour director and other couples for drinks (one free each - Carmen had a soda and I had a beer, Stella Artois to be exact; Jon it was good) and dinner at the hotel (Stamford Plaza by the way), it is very handy to the water front, parks, museums, and the Sky Tower. Easy walking distance to everything. We have met a few people from Florida and a young girl from Calgary, Canada. We have decided to make it an early night to get a little organized, do photos and the blog.Good night or good morning, whichever.
Holy cow! Don't do it Bob! Why jump off a perfectly good building!
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