Auckland - New Zealand
9/2/05
Here we go; this is our last post about New Zealand. Just in case you're getting tired of it, be aware that the next will be Chile!
We drove from Northland to a little town just next to Auckland on the night before; the drive from the little town to Auckland was around one hour only. This was the only place in NZ where we saw roads with several lanes and traffic jams.
Auckland is the largest urban region in the country and home to almost 1.3 million people.
Its fiery volcanic past is evident; volcanoes are scattered throughout the region. Note the two green mounts in the picture, they are now extinct volcanoes.
The most well-known includes Rangitoto Island in the Waitemata Harbor, and some which give the best panoramic views like Mount Eden.
Auckland has 31% of New Zealand's population and it has one new settler every 29 minutes. Also it claims to be the 2nd largest geographically spread city in the world, so with only 1.3 million, you figure that it is really spread.
At night, we met a friend of Angie from her hometown, Dettwiller, in Alsace. Now he lives in NZ and last time they saw each other was 11 years ago in their village. We spent a nice time, having wine and later moved to a bar for some beers. Here is Olivier!
9/3/05
This was supposed to be our last day in NZ, but ...
We had the morning free before heading to the airport to take our flight to Santiago in Chile, so we went to visit the War Memorial Museum. There we watched an interesting Maori Show before exploring the rest of the museum.
It is really funny when they do their ... well, I don't know how to say it in English, so, someone out there that knows Portuguese please find proper translation and post it in the comments; it is really funny when they do their Grito de Guerra, punching their own chest, making faces, pulling their tongue out and shouting. If you want to see it, you can watch the movie Whale Rider. It is a good movie about the Maori culture nowadays in New Zealand, even though the story is a bit slow; anyway, don't miss their war exercises, it is funny.
After, war shouts, music and dance we went for the rest of the museum. The first floor is all about Maori, their costumes, music, believes and the arrival of the English on the island.
There are temples brought into the museum with walls all carved and decorated.
Even their boats, huge canoes made of whole Kauri trees, were well worked; this is the tip front of a war canoe that can carry up to 160 warriors.
There was really a lot of interesting things about the Pacific islands and their cultures.
Then it follows into sections of War World War I and II and also NZ civil war. There is a room with a legendary Spitfire airplane from WWII.
After the museum we walked in the Domain, through its nice gardens, heading back to our hotel to get our stuff and then went to the airport.
At the airport we had a nice surprise, after all the nine yards of waiting, checking in, more waiting and then finally boarding, the pilot gave us the wonderful news that we would have to get off the plane because one of the trucks bumped into the plane making a hole in the fuselage.
At that point we just thought that our flight would be really late, because another airplane would be needed and all the passengers had to leave and board again, plus all the bags, or in one word: hell.
We got off the plane and received vouchers to buy food, not bad. After nearly one hour of wait, we were informed that the flight had been cancelled and we would be transferred to a hotel and later would receive more info about when we would fly.
The problem was that it was the night of the final match of the rugby championship between New Zealand's All Blacks and another Australian team; all the hotels in town were full, so we were bought to a Motel at least one hour and a half away from Auckland.
At least there was a good restaurant next to it, called Two Fat Cows. We were told that all expenses would be covered by Lan Chile except alcoholic drinks, uhuuu!!!
It was a nice break from instant noodles, sandwiches and other cheap foods we were eating. We ordered nice appetizers, the most expensive steaks and why not? desserts; the owner of the restaurant had a giant radiant smile on his face with a group of around 20 people all ordering food like crazy, all at the expense of Lan Chile.
During our long dinner, we met a group of kiwi farmers from NZ going to South America and Europe to research about new kiwi markets and a weird South Korean in a world tour. During dinner we were informed that we would receive more details about our flight on the following morning.
9/4/05
We went back to Two Fat Cows for breakfast at 8 a.m. and since the place is a restaurant and bar they had no breakfast on the menu, so I had a steak sandwich while Angie ordered a French Toast. During breakfast came the info about our flight, it was scheduled to leave at 7 a.m. of the yet next day, I couldn't believe it.
The whole group was unhappy about the situation and we said that we had at least to be transferred to a real hotel, so they did. After breakfast a big bus came and took us to nothing less then the Sky Tower, the hotel in the main landmark of Auckland and one of the most expensive in town, wow.
We got a super room and were informed that the restaurant of the hotel was free of charge for us, an immense buffet with all you can imagine, tons of different salads, pasta, meats, chicken and fish, :)
After an astronomic lunch, we walked around Auckland with the South Korean guy. We invited him to come with us to visit the Art Gallery. Talking to him we discovered that he had spent the last whole year in New Zealand studying the Bible. New Zealand is not a cheap place but he was at his own expense.
After the Art Gallery we wandered in the park in the middle of town and then went back to the hotel.
The dinner was a buffet again in the restaurant of the hotel where we met an interesting Spanish/Argentinean couple that told us a bit about what to expect in Chile, Bolivia and Peru.
Here we go; this is our last post about New Zealand. Just in case you're getting tired of it, be aware that the next will be Chile!
We drove from Northland to a little town just next to Auckland on the night before; the drive from the little town to Auckland was around one hour only. This was the only place in NZ where we saw roads with several lanes and traffic jams.
Auckland is the largest urban region in the country and home to almost 1.3 million people.
Its fiery volcanic past is evident; volcanoes are scattered throughout the region. Note the two green mounts in the picture, they are now extinct volcanoes.
The most well-known includes Rangitoto Island in the Waitemata Harbor, and some which give the best panoramic views like Mount Eden.
Auckland has 31% of New Zealand's population and it has one new settler every 29 minutes. Also it claims to be the 2nd largest geographically spread city in the world, so with only 1.3 million, you figure that it is really spread.
At night, we met a friend of Angie from her hometown, Dettwiller, in Alsace. Now he lives in NZ and last time they saw each other was 11 years ago in their village. We spent a nice time, having wine and later moved to a bar for some beers. Here is Olivier!
9/3/05
This was supposed to be our last day in NZ, but ...
We had the morning free before heading to the airport to take our flight to Santiago in Chile, so we went to visit the War Memorial Museum. There we watched an interesting Maori Show before exploring the rest of the museum.
It is really funny when they do their ... well, I don't know how to say it in English, so, someone out there that knows Portuguese please find proper translation and post it in the comments; it is really funny when they do their Grito de Guerra, punching their own chest, making faces, pulling their tongue out and shouting. If you want to see it, you can watch the movie Whale Rider. It is a good movie about the Maori culture nowadays in New Zealand, even though the story is a bit slow; anyway, don't miss their war exercises, it is funny.
After, war shouts, music and dance we went for the rest of the museum. The first floor is all about Maori, their costumes, music, believes and the arrival of the English on the island.
There are temples brought into the museum with walls all carved and decorated.
Even their boats, huge canoes made of whole Kauri trees, were well worked; this is the tip front of a war canoe that can carry up to 160 warriors.
There was really a lot of interesting things about the Pacific islands and their cultures.
Then it follows into sections of War World War I and II and also NZ civil war. There is a room with a legendary Spitfire airplane from WWII.
After the museum we walked in the Domain, through its nice gardens, heading back to our hotel to get our stuff and then went to the airport.
At the airport we had a nice surprise, after all the nine yards of waiting, checking in, more waiting and then finally boarding, the pilot gave us the wonderful news that we would have to get off the plane because one of the trucks bumped into the plane making a hole in the fuselage.
At that point we just thought that our flight would be really late, because another airplane would be needed and all the passengers had to leave and board again, plus all the bags, or in one word: hell.
We got off the plane and received vouchers to buy food, not bad. After nearly one hour of wait, we were informed that the flight had been cancelled and we would be transferred to a hotel and later would receive more info about when we would fly.
The problem was that it was the night of the final match of the rugby championship between New Zealand's All Blacks and another Australian team; all the hotels in town were full, so we were bought to a Motel at least one hour and a half away from Auckland.
At least there was a good restaurant next to it, called Two Fat Cows. We were told that all expenses would be covered by Lan Chile except alcoholic drinks, uhuuu!!!
It was a nice break from instant noodles, sandwiches and other cheap foods we were eating. We ordered nice appetizers, the most expensive steaks and why not? desserts; the owner of the restaurant had a giant radiant smile on his face with a group of around 20 people all ordering food like crazy, all at the expense of Lan Chile.
During our long dinner, we met a group of kiwi farmers from NZ going to South America and Europe to research about new kiwi markets and a weird South Korean in a world tour. During dinner we were informed that we would receive more details about our flight on the following morning.
9/4/05
We went back to Two Fat Cows for breakfast at 8 a.m. and since the place is a restaurant and bar they had no breakfast on the menu, so I had a steak sandwich while Angie ordered a French Toast. During breakfast came the info about our flight, it was scheduled to leave at 7 a.m. of the yet next day, I couldn't believe it.
The whole group was unhappy about the situation and we said that we had at least to be transferred to a real hotel, so they did. After breakfast a big bus came and took us to nothing less then the Sky Tower, the hotel in the main landmark of Auckland and one of the most expensive in town, wow.
We got a super room and were informed that the restaurant of the hotel was free of charge for us, an immense buffet with all you can imagine, tons of different salads, pasta, meats, chicken and fish, :)
After an astronomic lunch, we walked around Auckland with the South Korean guy. We invited him to come with us to visit the Art Gallery. Talking to him we discovered that he had spent the last whole year in New Zealand studying the Bible. New Zealand is not a cheap place but he was at his own expense.
After the Art Gallery we wandered in the park in the middle of town and then went back to the hotel.
The dinner was a buffet again in the restaurant of the hotel where we met an interesting Spanish/Argentinean couple that told us a bit about what to expect in Chile, Bolivia and Peru.
posted by Adriano and Angie | 6:14 PM
1 Comments:
Nice ending for a beautiful long trip to NZ! You seem to have been quite lucky on this one.
Free food and free nights must have made you back into schedule on expenses, no !?!
Cheers,
Flavien.
Post a Comment
<< Home