Auckland, New Zealand

We arrived in Auckland with some overcast skies but by the afternoon it was nice and sunny and the temperature was in the mid 60s. Doug and I took a walk by ourselves around the city. It is clean and easy to get around. We gravitated to the Albert Park, (I wonder why... oh there were some trees there). It is built up high on an old volcano and overlooks part of the city. It was so nice to walk around a friendly, English speaking city. The locals are so helpful. Mary Anne asked for some help on how to get by bus to a mall and the lady asked them to hop in her car and drove them to the mall. Again, Mary Anne was chatting up another lady and she offered to drive her and Harry to the museum and if she had more time wanted them to come over for dinner. We are very very impressed with the lovely city and the wonderful people.

The next day, we went on a bus tour of the city. First of all we drove to the waterfront where Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Encounter and Underwater World is. This underwater world is built in old sewer tunnels and is so well done that it is know world wide. There is a life size recreation of Captain Robert Scott's 1911 Antarctic expedition. I don't know how they braved the cold in such poor living conditions. Next we took a "Snow Cat" and went into a simulated snow storm where we emerged into a live penguin colony. A baby penguin was born just 24 hours previously, but we could not see it. You could see them swimming and walking around. They were so cute. Next we traveled through a clear, acrylic tunnel on a moving walk way as schools of fish and sting ray and shark swam around us.

After this, we traveled downtown to the Sky Tower which stands at 1,072 feet and is the tallest building in the southern hemisphere. We took elevators to the observation deck which showed a panoramic view of the city of Auckland and Hauraki Gulf. Auckland has the longest shoreline of any city in the world. The city itself is 60 miles in diameter and has one and half million people. As we were walking around the deck we saw people do the Sky Jump off the tower down to the bottom in 28 sec. Our waiter did it and asked me to do it with her. I said no naturally. It looked scary but fun. So Doug got this idea he should do it. I said I wouldn't. We went down to get Doug fitted out in a harness etc. but the cashier would not accept American cash and we did not take our credit cards with us unfortunately. I was all prepared to take photos of Doug's jump. Doug was so disappointed. Would you believe, NZ does not take any American cash, not even $1. We learned a lesson, have Visa on you at all times.

We walked back to the ship and at the dinner table, we were all agreeing what a wonderful city and country this is and wouldn't mind moving here. Houses are so reasonably priced and cost of living is low. We were told if any tourist needs to go to the hospital, all expenses are taken care of by the government and we do not have to pay anything. NZ has low crime, is very clean, slow paced, friendly. Why wouldn't you want to come and live here.

Tomorrow off to Tauranga which is fairly close by so we are taking a detour with the cruise ship so that we don't arrive early but have a sea day to rest. I just looked out the balcony window and we are hardly moving along.

100 extra people onboard the ship and you can notice the difference. Tables are getting busier and noisier and more traffic in the hallways. What will happen when we get a full ship in Hong Kong. We have been spoiled.