September 11, 2025 - Day One in New Zealand
We made it to Auckland, New Zealand this morning arriving at 7 AM here. It was a bit of an adventure as we were booked on the 3:45 PM flight from Portland, Oregon to San Francisco but changed that to the 7:30 PM flight as our flight to Auckland was to depart at 11 PM. Well, we made good use of the time going to a fun hotel and eatery near Kami’s where we had been staying the last 4 nights or so with Denise’s mom and a few siblings. But the 7:30 PM flight got pushed back to 8 PM and then it got delayed once we were on the plane. Wheels were up at 8:35 PM and we arrived in SFO at our gate at about 10:20 PM. We hoofed it over to the International Terminal arriving there about 10 minutes before they would have closed the plane’s door. We made it huffing and puffing feeling like we needed a shower. But the good news was that we got business class seats for the 13+ hour ride to Auckland. I think I got a good 6 or 7 hours of sleep in laying flat…a rare thing for us/me on an airplane. Made the trip nice.
We rented a car at the airport and decided our first stop would be something in the downtown of Auckland area. We chose to go up the Sky City Tower to get a good view of the city. It is one of the top 5 tallest towers in the world. We paid to go up to the 60th floor of it to get an amazing view of the city and the harbor. Auckland is a beautiful place with so much water all around it. I did expect it to be more hilly though. On little adventure was the parking. We decided to park in the garage under the tower. I noticed driving in that if you were in the garage early, you would only pay NZ $15 for the whole day. But you had to find a machine to get the ticket validated. I had also read prior to coming here that parking was half price if you bought tickets to go up the tower, which we were going to do. Anyway, I decided to get the early entry validation thinking that I could also get the tower validation and then which ever price was best, the system would give you the best price. Nope…when we spoke with the employee at the Sky City ticket area, he said that he could not validate it as it was already validated for early entry. He did say to go to the machine and call to ask for help upon exiting. Well, that’s what we did and the guy on the line was very helpful in getting us the 50% having purchased Sky City Tower tickets. It made me smile.
We next headed out of the city to go to Hot Water Beach in the Coromendel Peninsula. That was where our AIRBNB was that I had booked last night after getting seats on the plane. The driving over here is on the left side of the road. So I feel like I’m back in England. The ride from Auckland to Hot Water Beach was about 2.5 hours long with half of that time going on very, very windy roads through mountains to get over to the beaches on this peninsula. Nonetheless, we found the flat and it is quite secluded and about 50 yards from the beach. Tomorrow afternoon, we plan to go to the beach and experience Hot Water beach where when the tide is out, you can dig holes in the sand and they fill up with water. It should be cool…or hot! 😘
Lastly, there is no grocery store like places near us here. The main eatery is only open on weekends. Fortunately there is a small cafe that served some food. But it closes at 3 PM. It was 1:30 PM when we started our food search. Anyway, it was yummy. I think tomorrow we’ll go there for breakfast too. But then we need to go find something else for dinner and breakfast the next day. Anyway…that will be fun. Tonight I’ll also be trying to book the remainder of our trip.
Pictures:
Sky City Tower in downtown Auckland…
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