Auckland, New Zealand

Maori Meeting House

            Thursday, 11 Oct 2012 – We awoke to our alarm clock at 5:45 AM, dressed, ate breakfast, and headed for the Princess Theater for our excursion to Auckland.  Jesse was not wearing his glasses and misread the departure time on our excursion tickets, so rather than arriving at the last minute, as usual, we arrived 20 minutes early.  Afterwards, we felt a little guilty for mowing down several elderly passengers to get to the Princess theater in time for our departure.



With Auckland Sky Tower

Tatooed Man

82-Foot War Canoe

 Our tour bus departed the port at 7:45 AM.  We rode through Auckland towards the Auckland Museum as the driver pointed out major points of interest.  The museum overlooks the picturesque Waitermata Harbour and is dedicated to those who sacrificed their lives for their country.  Upon entering the museum, we were separated into eight-person groups and assigned a tour guide.  Highlights of the tour included a large Maori (Polynesians who populated New Zealand) meeting house and a mighty 82-foot war canoe carved from an enormous totara tree, both adorned with intricate carvings.  We were reminded of the movie, “The Piano,” which was set during early settlement of New Zealand by the British.  The natives in “The Piano” were adorned with facial tattoos, which today we learned were all unique representations of their personal genealogy.  When entering a Maori meeting house, visitors must first remove their shoes and then recite their entire genealogy.  After the museum tour, we continued our drive around Auckland, which included exclusive areas of Auckland with multimillion dollar homes and where, of course, the residents have attempted to ban tour busses.  Taxes here are around 30 percent maximum, and the government highly subsidizes university education and health care.   The driver complained about the “rich” in New Zealand finding ways of getting around paying their fair share of the taxes.  (Does this sound like the USA?)  The tour ended with a drive across the Harbour Bridge.  The original four-lane bridge was built in the 1950s, but was later expanded to eight.  With Jesse’s engineering background, he became terrified after the driver announced that the two outside lanes on each side of the bridge were made in Japan and then cantilevered onto the original structure; luckily, our bus made it across and back!

We returned to our cabin about 12:30 PM and immediately proceeded to the Horizon Court for lunch.  Afterwards, Jesse enjoyed his customary chocolate and vanilla swirl ice cream cone at the Sundaes Ice Cream Bar.  Then we returned to our cabin for more hand laundry, napping, and TV.  Since we were alone at our table as expected (the others were staying in Auckland longer), we finished earlier than usual so were able to dance longer before returning to our cabin.