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.

Oct 19th – What a long way from Canada to New Zealand. Our trusty chauffeur, Fred Pamenter picked us up at 10 am on Thursday morning and delivered us to the airport. With a 3 hour wait in Toronto and a 5 hour wait in Los Angeles, the time change, and then a 3 hour wait for our apartment, it was 30 hours before we were able to put our head on a pillow and dream sweat dreams of a five week stay in this lovely country. Our first impression was if Ireland is the green country then New Zealand must be the country of double green. The range in colour everywhere you look is stupendous.

Our first stop at the airport was to pick up a cheap phone since the cost of extending our Rogers plan was felt to be too expensive. Our next stop was to pick up our rental car, a Ford Monteo. Driving on the wrong side of the road is not a problem but figuring out how to turn off the rear wiper blade was! Fortunately, they leave the User Manual in the car so we sat in the parking lot and read it but that didn’t help. George paid another visit to the counter but the representative there didn’t know so she put in a call to someone at head office. While they were waiting for a call back, I finally figured it out so then I had to park and go into the terminal building to find George. Quite an auspicious start!

Since our apartment wasn’t ready yet (at 9 am?) we went for a walk and then to the grocery store to put in some time. We also visited the AA to transfer our CAA membership. This gave us free maps, travel brochures and a discount on gas prices.

Our Quest Henderson apartment is small but well appointed for the limited time we will be here.  We are able to make our own breakfast and eat in if we want. Our first trip to the grocery store was uneventful except that we had to ask a lady to decipher the milk descriptions for us. There is no such thing as skim milk…but they do have a thin milk.

After a nap we headed out to get our bearings and have dinner. We went to a lovely area called Mission Bay and ate at a small cafe in Helliers Bay overlooking the water with the sunset in the background. Unlike home, the price on the menu includes tax and tip, so while meals seemed expensive at first blush we realized that they are pretty much similar to home. What they appear to be missing here are the middle-of-the-road restaurants such as our beloved Swiss Chalet.

Home to bed and a much needed good night’s rest.