""Just plain lucky"" Auckland by seth0919

The above photo is a view of Auckland wihle were were sailing in the bay.

The flight arrived at around 5:30 AM and we took a bus into the center of Auckland. The hotel did not have a room ready for us at that hour, but we were allowed to leave our bags, which we did. Time to walk around the city and figure out what’s what in this new, incredibly clean city. Stores started to open around 7:30 and we found a much needed Starbucks. After some coffee and juice, we felt rejuvenated and ready to tackle the streets.

The marina seemed like a good place to start sightseeing and while walking to the marina we literally bumped into and old friend from high school. Jamie (one of my travel companions) and I haven’t seen Corey in probably nine years, but he looked exactly the same as we remembered. It turns out that Corey works as part of the crew on a sailing boat called the Arcturus, so we went sailing for the day!! (We're just plain lucky) The Arcturus was built in 1930 and was owned by General George Patton (www.classicboatcharter.com). We spent the day sailing with Corey, his brother and the crew of the Arcturus. The sight of Auckland from aboard the ship was truly incredible. While sailing we learned that Auckland is known as the city of sails because one in four people who live in Auckland own a boat, and most of those boats are sailboats.

After sailing for most of the day, we all headed over to a local watering hold directly on the pier, The Loaded Hog, and had a few cold beers and continued to learn about New Zealand from our crew. One interesting thing we learned about NZ was that the practice of “tipping” was neither expected nor customary. Tipping is a relatively new concept in NZ (thanks to increased tourism). So if you consider how strong the US dollar is compared to the NZ dollar and then add on the lack of tipping, our day on the boat and in the bar was incredibly inexpensive.

We went back to the hotel to clean up and then went off to meet our tour group. The following day would be the first of a 15 day tour (on a coach, otherwise known as a bus) all around both the north and south islands of NZ. The tour consisted of approximately 48 people, all on for varying lengths of time (some for just 3 days, some for a week, while others would join the tour at a later date). A large group of tour travelers decided, on our recommendation, to have a late dinner and drink at the Loaded Hog. Many travelers were jet-lagged or just basically tired, so we called it an early night and got to bed in preparation for our first day of the official tour.

more photos at:
http://public.fotki.com/seth0919/new_zealand_2001/00_-_auckland/

The above photo is a view of Auckland wihle were were sailing in the bay.

Jamie just chilling on the boat.....enjoying the beautiful weather and sites.

View from the boat