Oct 20th – When George first began working at Excelsior some 35+ years ago, he worked with a young man from Hong Kong named Henry. Over the years George assisted Henry in developing the skills needed to move forward in the life insurance industry. The friendship has continued and we frequently get together with Henry and Frances. Henry’s brother retired from Hong Kong to New Zealand in 1997, so the connection was made for John to host us in Auckland.

John and Agnes picked us up at our apartment in the morning and what a day we had! We first went to Mount Victoria to get a view of the city from that vantage point. Then we toured a quaint old town called Davenport which is directly across the bay from Auckland. The picture on yesterday’s blog was from the top of Mount Victoria.  Then he took us to the downtown area and we toured around Ponsonby – a trendy area where all the young business folk are moving into; the Viaduct Area – newly built condos on reclaimed land down by the water; the harbour – a big cruise ship was in town; and the one and only main street – Queen Street. We stopped at a little cafe in Ponsonby for lunch and then continued the tour up to One Tree Hill. When Auckland was founded as a colonial city, there was one lone tree at the top of the volcanic peak, hence the name. Keeping a tree on the site has been a problem throughout the years as various individuals have chopped down the tree either as an act of vandalism or protest. Since the last assault in 2000, the tree has not been replaced so locals have nicknamed the area None Tree Hill.

Dinner was an experience  at a very posh restaurant called Hammerhead, again down by the water. We’d actually passed the place the night before and joked that we wouldn’t be eating there. Needless to say we weren’t allowed to spend a cent all day. John said Henry would never forgive him if we didn’t report back that he treated us like royalty! We parted great friends with a promise to go to their house on Wednesday evening for dinner.