Day 47: Auckland, North Island … New Zealand

Wednesday, 22 February 2017
At Sea — South Pacific Ocean … En Route to Gisborne

Stats @ Ship’s Time 9:00p (NZDT) … UTC 8:00a (22 February)
Temp: 70.2F (21.2C)
Position: 36.28.22S / 175.37.78E

While armchair travelers dream of going places,
traveling armchairs dream of staying put.
~ Anne Tyler ~

Kia Ora!  This is the Māori language greeting we heard over and over again as we wandered around Auckland today.  It is so popular that it has entered New Zealand English.  Though the literal meaning is be well/healthy, it is used not only as an informal hello, but also as a farewell and expression of thanks.  We, of course, responded right back with the same words.

Two to Travel's photo op with Māori dancers.

We had a great second day in the city that was once the capital of New Zealand.  The weather — in a word — was spectacular … nice temps, sunshine, blue skies, low humidity.  In other words, a duplicate of yesterday.

Wanting to take advantage of having been in port overnight, we got an early start this morning.  Shortly after 7:30a, we were cutting into the line of disembarking passengers who were waiting for the purser’s office to give the OK to let people off the ship.  Our blue “RTW ship’s card” worked its magic — meaning we were allowed to leave without that OK since we would be returning to the ship before it set sail at 5:00p.

The streets of the CBD [central business district] were fairly quiet as we set off on the Coast-to-Coast Walk.  We knew we would not be able to do all 10 miles (16 km), but I did think we’d get more done than we did.  What happened?  Well, I’ll get to that in a minute.

Almost from the get go, we began to make adjustments to the official path.  First, we detoured to Albert Park, which dates back to 1882.  To get there, we had an uphill climb, with some steps.  No matter — we were in no hurry and took it easy.  The park was beautiful and peaceful, but what caught our eye the most were the mature trees with big trunk and root systems … WOW!

Our meandering walk next took us through the campus of the University of Auckland.  There was a distinct hustle and bustle here as students hurried around us to get to their classes.  Uphill, downhill … then up the Centennial Walkway, a paved path shaded by the mature trees of the Auckland Domain … the city’s oldest park with 200 acres of parkland.  Reaching the top, we meandered to check out some sculptures and fountains, and enjoyed the colorful flowers planted in the parterres.  Our plan was to visit the winter gardens and fernery … but instead we found ourselves walking to the Auckland War Memorial Museum, the focal point of the Domain.

The museum turned out to be our downfall.  Not because we regretted going there, but because it spelled the end of our Coast-to-Coast walk.  What we thought would be a quickie look-see stop took up the rest of our day — mostly because the place turned out to be much more than a museum focusing just on the country’s war history.

It was 10:00a and the museum was just opening its doors.  We studied the ticket options and decided to get the Moa Package, which included the museum admission, highlights tour, and Māori performance … for NZD $55/person (~ USD $40).  Well, well, well worth the price.

The three levels of the museum all have a different focus.  The top floor is dedicated to telling “the story of New Zealand’s involvement in the great conflicts of the 20th century, as well as the New Zealand Wars of the 19th century.”  Here were the WWI and WWII Halls of Memories — beautiful stained glass windows, and names of the fallen inscribed on the walls … a sad reminder of the loss of life that accompanies any war … big or small.

The second level tells the “Stories of Our Land and Sea.”  The focus here was on natural history, with galleries containing a wide variety of exhibits from volcanoes, to wildlife, to the arts of Asia, and more.  On the ground level, the exhibits were about the “People of the Pacific.”  On display were artifacts, including carvings, canoes, and much much more, from the great Pacific navigators — the Polynesians and the Māori — through to the pioneers who settled the country in the 19th century,

The highlights tour covered just a small portion of the museum, but later we returned to all the galleries to take a closer look at some of the exhibits and take photographs.  Admittedly, we didn’t even make a dent in all that there was to see.  In between exploring the museum, we went to the cultural performance that was included in our ticket package.  In hindsight, we could have skipped this … we saw a much better one when we visited New Zealand for six weeks in 2015.  That said, if this were the only chance one had to see a performance, it would be worth the time.

When we left at 2:00p, we did so knowing that we had not done justice to the museum.  With a lot of walking planned in the upcoming ports, we decided to give our feet a break and hopped on the Inner Link bus back to the CBD — $3.50/person; green line.  It was while we were on the bus that I remembered a recommendation for Valentino’s, a gelateria near the ferry building.  Well, turns out the place was inside the building, not near it, so we didn't find it until we were on our way back to the ship.  But no matter, the ice cream at the Mövenpick shop did the trick for us.

We were on the ship shortly after 3:00p, well satisfied with the way our day turned out even though it wasn’t what we had planned to do.  We had just about an hour to rest before we got an early call to muster — moved up from 4:30p to 4:10p.  The reason, we were told, was that the captain wanted to leave earlier than scheduled since the ship would be sailing through a whale sanctuary on the way south and would have to do so at a decreased speed.  Our fifth muster drill since embarking in Miami went just as we expected it would … smoothly, with all the passengers paying attention to the disseminated information regardless of how many times they had already heard it.

At just past 5:00p, the lines were let go, and we bid Auckland farewell.  At the moment, we are hauling ass as they say — not sure if that means we are past the sanctuary, or if Captain Luca — who took over from Captain B today — is trying to make headway while he can.  See-sawing our way down the east coast of NZ … that’s a good way to describe the ship’s motion at present.

Tomorrow is another day in port — although we have the morning at sea.  That’s a good thing … we need the time to rest our feet.  Speaking of which … I’m ready to go to bed.

For photos from our day in Auckland, click here.

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