Monday, March 10, 2025

Monday, March 10, 2025

It’s another beautiful day in Auckland. It’s sunny with temperatures in the low 70’s. We had breakfast in the hotel. 

 Steve’s cappuccino had the name of the hotel stenciled in chocolate on top.

It doesn’t feel like we are in a foreign country. It’s as if we are in a city in the US. I think it’s for 2 reasons. One it’s so new architecturally and everyone speaks English. Signs are in English. 

We took off for a walking tour of a popular place to shop, the Wynyard Quarter. We couldn’t find any shopping, but we found the Auckland Fish Market. It was only about 10 AM so no one was buying fish yet for lunch. 

There were huge yachts in the marina and lots of waterside restaurants. The Boat Show was this past weekend so there were lots of boats in the marina.

Then we walked up Queen Street. They had all the NY stores. When we went to France last year, Susie’s grandkids made stick figures of themselves for her to bring along. We had so much fun taking pictures of them in our travels throughout the trip. I said to Jeff we should bring Susie along with us. Today’s mission was to get a picture printed and laminated. The first place we went to couldn’t help us. He did suggest a copier store on another street. We found it and told the owners our thoughts on making a placard. They couldn’t have been nicer.

                                        SUCCESS!

Mission accomplished! We made our way to the Skytower. It is 63 floors. It is the tallest structure in the city. The Skytower is visible from all over Auckland. The panoramic views of Auckland are awesome. 

This is  Mt. Eden. It had erupted over 6000 years ago. I guess they aren’t expecting any eruptions, as it is pretty well populated around the area.

When we were ready to leave the Sky Tower we were told  something you NEVER want to hear when you are on the 60th floor. “The elevator isn’t working. You can wait, or you can walk down to the 51st Floor.”  Ugh! At least it’s down and not up. Our legs and knees were like jelly, but we made it!

On our walk back to the hotel. We saw St. Patrick’s Cathedral. I reminded Jeff that he is only allowed 2 churches a day! It’s easy here. This is the only church we have seen in Auckland. If you look closely at this picture, the SkyTower is reflected in the doors to the church. It is very plain and modest. Nothing like the opulent churches in Europe.

 Auckland appears to be a young city all new glass and metal buildings with a handful of old structures sprinkled in between. 

Dinner tonight is at Queen Rooftop Wine-bar I read about it on Instagram. It seemed very cool. The Directions were go in the side door into the wine bar. Tell the woman you have a reservation and then she’ll direct you to the elevator. So I made a reservation. Little did I know that it was on the rooftop of our hotel, The Intercontinental.

Queens Rooftp Wine-Bar is a beautiful venue! We walked around the corner of the building, through the wine shop, gave our name and got in an elevator! The views were just beautiful of the city below. We were led to our table which had a perfect view of the future sunset. We each ordered something different. Steve had chicken schnitzel. Jeff had saffron pasta with shrimp and I had steak. We also had our first New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Everything was good and the view was spectacular.

After dinner, we went back downstairs and walked around our hotel. We found a gelato store open right across the street. The flavors were interesting combinations, and quite delicious.  We are off to bed, as we have a busy tomorrow. We pick up our rental car at 9:30 AM. Let the road trip begin. 🇳🇿🇳🇿🚙🚙🚙🚙

Good night Auckland!💤💤 We are off to Rotoroa in the morning.