This is part 11, the last (hurrah!) in a series of travelogues about a vacation trip down under for myself, my partner, and 3 other family members.
The story so far:
Part 1 included a tour of Sydney, Australia and nearby areas, ending with our cruise ship sailing away from Sydney Harbour.
Part 2 focussed on a ship-board attraction, blowing hot glass at sea.
Part 3 included a visit to a wildlife sanctuary, to see Tasmanian Devils and other fascinating animals from Down Under.
Part 4 was a drive-by sailing through the Sounds of New Zealand.
Part 5 explored the city of Dunedin in what was a cool, drizzly, spring day in New Zealand’s south-east.
Part 6 had us docked in Akaroa NZ, with a bus trip over to Christchurch, visiting a sheep farm along the way.
Part 7 took us to New Zealand’s capital city Wellington, on the southern tip of the north island.
Part 8 had a look at the growing of kiwifruit near Tauranga, NZ.
Part 9 was a visit to the picturesque Bay of Islands, NZ.
Part 10 was the arrival in the final city of Auckland, NZ, and a fascinating visit to SheepWorld.
Tonight, we tour around the city of Auckland, and head back to Canada and our own bed.
But first, a word from our sponsor:
Here at Top Comments we strive to nourish community by rounding up some of the site's best, funniest, most mojo'd & most informative commentary, and we depend on your help!! If you see a comment by another Kossack that deserves wider recognition, please send it either totopcomments at gmail or to the Top Comments group mailbox by 9:30pm Eastern. Please please please include a few words about why you sent it in as well as your user name (even if you think we know it already :-)), so we can credit you with the find!
TONIGHT’S FEATURE PRESENTATION: AUCKLAND, NZ AND GOING HOME
Note: The photos in this diary are hosted on flickr. You can see larger versions of each image by right-clicking on the image, and selecting “Open image in new tab”. Or the equivalent for your device/operating system/browser.
After two weeks, our cruise on Celebrity Solstice came to an end, and we took up temporary residence in a hotel in Auckland. Three family members spent two nights in Auckland, while my partner and I stayed four nights before heading home. This gave us time to explore the city, stuff our faces full of kiwifruit, and just generally hang out before getting back to the real world.
Auckland is one of those cities that has hop-on/hop-off double-deck sightseeing buses. You buy a pass for the day, then get on one of the buses at a designated stop. Get off at another stop, and re-board later as another bus comes by. Several buses work the same route, and there’s always another one coming within about 15 or 20 minutes at any given stop. You can set your own pace as to how much time to spend at each stop, or bypass some altogether depending on your interests.
We started out adjacent to the Sky Tower, which is just a short walk from our hotel. We didn’t go up the tower, though I’m sure it’s quite a good view from up there. I think we intended to go up there on another day, but just never got around to it.
One of our first stops was at Bastion Point. A military outpost had been established here in 1885, as the point offers a strategic view of the harbour. A plan to sell off the land to be subdivided for expensive homes resulted in the 1977-1978 occupation of the land by Māori protestors. After 507 days, the occupiers were forcibly removed by a combination of police and army. A few years later, the point was officially returned to the Māori, and is now a historic park site.
A memorial to former New Zealand Prime Minister Joseph Savage (1872-1940) is one of the prominent permanent features:
We were there on a cool windy spring morning last November, and so there were very few people out and about. The vegetation was also in early spring mode.
Down a short path from the memorial, you come across a great view of the harbour and city.
Moving along, we stopped at (yet another, but that’s not a complaint) rose garden. It’s a sad commentary that the signs have to instruct people not to pick the flowers.
Shot hastily from a moving bus: Kiwis have a way with words.
We went to the park known as the Auckland Domain, whose 185 acres encompass an ancient volcano site dating back 250,000 years, give or take a few. The numerous volcanoes in the region explain why New Zealand is a producer of a wide assortment of crops: the rich volcanic soil, and the moderate climate, make it possible to grow (almost) anything.
If you’ve been following this series along, you may know that I love trees that have character. The Auckland Domain grounds include some beauties.
Among other things at Auckland Domain, is the Winter Garden, including a tropical hot house, which is a large green house. There are beautiful flowers, and water features, inside and out.
My final impressions of New Zealand happened on the voyage home. When we got to the Auckland airport, I looked at the monitors that display flight status. For many flights, the displayed status read “On time” or in a few cases “Delayed”. But for the ones that were a couple of hours or more away from scheduled departure, the status displayed on the monitors was simply:
Relax
Well played, New Zealand! As I mentioned above, Kiwis do have a way with words.
The first leg of our journey home was an Air New Zealand flight from Auckland to Sydney, Australia. You know how those pre-flight safety demonstrations are usually dry and boring? If you fly a lot, they get repetitive, and you find yourself paying close attention because you should always know what to do in an emergency tuning them out completely.
Air New Zealand has a different take on the subject. As all the passengers were settled into their seats, the on-board monitors fired up with a full-on parody of Men in Black, performing the safety demo. Maybe parody isn’t the right word. I don’t know what to call it; it was like a music video set to a Men in Black meme, funny yet informative. It even featured Rip Torn, an actor known from the MiB movies and other things (he rocked in The Larry Sanders Show). The safety demo is briefly mentioned on his Wiki page.
Again, well played, New Zealand!
This concludes the series of the Down Under adventure.
I leave you with one final image from this voyage, which I’ve shown before. I shot it at a sheep farm near Wellington, NZ. As Tara the Antisocial Social Worker commented:
Those sheep look like they’re up to something.
I couldn’t have put it better myself.
top comments for sunday May 15, 2016
From Village Vet:
From this week's “Sunday Talk: The GOP Did Nazi This Coming” by Trix:
On Mussolini allegedly promising to make the trains run on time (in a thread about Donald Trump), ontheleftcoast continued the punditry.
From Tara the Antisocial Social Worker:
A Twofer!
In Ed Tracey's always-awesome Odds & Ends diary, “Odds & Ends: News/Humor (with a ‘Who Lost the Week?’ poll)”, Elwood Dowd had an innovative suggestion for Trumps' running mate.
Then revbludge added a peek at Trump's short list.
From AJayne:
I would like to submit this comment by Loreg from the diary “About That Misleading Nevada Video Pushed By The Sanders Campaign”by HealthCarewatcher in light of the uproar around the NV state convention yesterday. Loreg sought out, linked, and posted the applicable rule(s) that the Bernie camp was so upset about. My thanks to Loreg for that effort!
top mojo for saturday may 14, 2016
top photos for saturday may 14, 2016