Bonnie & Joel's Excellent Adventures

First day in New Zealand, hereafter referred to as NZ. The air trip down from Dallas was long, but did not feel as long thanks to NZ Airlines Business Class. One of us, the one who is 5 foot 4 inches, slept for 8 of the 12.5 hours flight time on the luxurious (by airlines standards) lay-flat seats and miracle of miracles the taller one slept for about 3 hours. So when we stepped off the plane in Auckland’s spotless modern airport we were raring to get going on our Kiwi adventure.

Just a note the process of going through luggage then passport control, nearly fully automated except when facial recognition software refused to match my face with my passport picture from nearly 10 years ago (yes I look older, but wiser), took us a total of about 15 minutes. We met our guide for the three weeks, Alex right outside customs, purchased SIM cards and hit the road Jack.

First stop, a Memorial Garden for a little NZ greenery and a view of the city. Next stop, we went for the high ground. One of the inactive volcanos that ring Auckland. The view of the cityscape was wonderful and the minor uphill hike from the car park woke up our legs.

Then we headed for more nature, less city. A 30 minute drive out of the city to Goldie’s Bush Forest for our first nature hike. We cleaned our shoes to make sure we weren’t carrying any contaminants on the soles of our shoes that could damage a protected native tree called Kauri’s (pronounced like Cody). These trees live over 2000 years, second only to the Redwoods. They are protected from being harvested for lumber, they had been over harvested to near extinction and since NZ government, led by a 30 something single woman…YAY!….cares about the environment they are doing something to reestablish this beautiful species. Anyway at the end of the hiking trail, there was a beautiful waterfall. The steps down, then back up to get a closer look at the falls, took a serious hit out of our energy reserves, just off the plane and a day ahead of ourselves after all, and made the mostly uphill 30 minute hike back to the car about 45 minutes. And pretty much ended our hiking plans for the rest of the day. Luckily our next stop involved more riding in the car and less hiking. Gorgeous scenery, kind of Big Sur-ish, to a bird sanctuary for the Gannet. A large waterfowl that nests near Muriwai Beach.

Next stop our B&B. John and Mel Sweetman’s 7 Parliment B&B. A small apartment building built in 1901 located right next to the University. We learned from John, a voiceover artist best know as the voice of some international infomercials…”but wait there’s more” that the building has been in several movies and NZ TV shows because it has been restored to the early 1900’s period. After a wee nap…wee is defined as less than 3 hours right?…we headed to the Sugar Club located on floor 53 of the Sky Tower in city center for a dinner from a Michelin starred chef. After great food with a view kind of like Reunion Tower but surrounded by an ocean we headed to the elevator and practically ran into NZ’s biggest, okay only, celebrity known as Lorde. Have to fess up, we did not spot her, Alex our guide did recognize her, and her sister. He let us in on the spotting just as the elevator opened and we stepped in, so no serious stalking incident….but WTF why do these celebrities keep stalking us? Bonnie has that celebrity magnetism. End of first day..