Wire our money, we're staying here!

January 30, 2018

Wire our money, we're staying here!

What an incredible sail-in this was! We spent two glorious days in Auckland, so this post may be twice as long. It was hard to whittle down the photos to the ones included here. This has to be one of the most exquisite cities, in fact, even though the housing prices are some of the highest (the median home price is around $1,000,000), it is considered the third most livable city in the world.

The Sky Tower makes the skyline spectacular and can be seen from almost everywhere. (Yes, that's our floating home just to the left of center.)

Even from Devonport on the North Shore.

We went on two bus excursions on the two days we were here. Our driver-guides gave us quite a bit of information and I was nerdy enough to take notes. So, I'm going to give you Auckland by the numbers:

2nd largest city in the world by area--155 km or 96 miles from the north to the south border
2 harbors--Waitakere and Manukau
3 official languages--English, Maori, and Sign Language
4.5 million--population of New Zealand
14% of that population is Maori
1.4 million--population of Auckland
135,000 yachts in Auckland
10 million sheep in NZ
20 million cattle in NZ
53 volcanic cones in the city, but the highest is only 643 ft.
328 meters or 1,076 feet to the top of the Sky Tower
50 inches of rainfall annually
178 years ago, Auckland was founded on Jan. 29. Our first day in port coincided with the Anniversary holiday. Our berth in the port was right next to the party!

We watched from our veranda as the signal flags were pulled up on this naval vessel.

Bagpipers played as the ship pulled out with dignitaries on board.

Food trucks lined the harbor road and there were carnival rides and a craft market.

The red gates formed a boundary along the wharf.

Auckland's nickname is "City of Sails" and the boats were out in force for the holiday.

They formed a regatta that sailed to one end of the city, turned around and sailed to the Harbor Bridge and turned around again.

I love the silhouette of the masts against the youngest of the volcanic cones--Rangitoto Island, formed 600 years ago.

Two more of the cones can be seen in this photo from the Sky Tower.

The Maori terraced the volcanos and built hill forts called Pa̅. The same terraces were used during WWII as a defensive position to guard against a feared Russian invasion, that fortunately never came. (Look for the cannon to the left of the flagpole.)

This lake in Sylvan Park is in a hollowed out volcanic cone. The black swans are considered the property of the Queen.

With so much water, there are lots of beaches, and on this summer holiday, locals were out on them.

I had a free morning, so decided to get a Bird's eye view of the city by going up to the observation decks of the Sky Tower. I resisted the temptation to do the bungee jump, though.

This glass floor gave me a little bit of anxiety, and although I told myself that I had no fear of heights, I had to look straight ahead as I walked across it.

You can see our ship over me shoulder in
this selfie.

The beautiful harbor bridge shortens the distance between the north and south shores of Auckland.

Our first bus tour took us across the bridge to the North Shore where we visited the very picturesque town of Devonport. Most of the houses are built of wood from one of the 25 native species of tree--the Kauri. This wood from this tree is naturally blond, close grained, resistant to rot and can be used for ship building as well as houses. It was heavily logged when the Europeans first came to New Zealand, but now is protected. The houses have lovely fretwork under the eaves and give a Victorian feel to the town. The middle of these photos is Devonport as we sailed out of the harbor.

Our second bus tour took us to the "Domain" where the War Memorial Museum stands prominently on one of the volcanic cones. The tour didn't include a visit to the museum; instead we stopped at the nearby Windergarden green houses.