Auckland

Auckland Harbour at night, as we left

We are close to home where the roads are paved in gold and we live off the sheep’s back but first we took a port turn from Tahiti and visited the country where the roads are black, but you can’t say that, and what happens to sheep is not discussed in public, New Zealand.

We tied up at the cruise terminal. Auckland Harbour closely resembles Circular Quay in Sydney. On the dock is the Hilton Hotel and some very expensive harbour-front apartments. As the ships cafeteria is on Deck 14, we sat having breakfast looking down on each owner and hotel guest as they threw open their curtains, semi-naked or worse, see us looking at them and struggle to shut the blinds again. This happened many times and was a great source of amusement predicting which set of blinds would open next.

Mudbrick Vineyard

Bored with that we went ashore for morning coffee at the Depot Eatery in Federal St. This café is one of the best eateries in Auckland and you sometimes have to queue to get a seat, bookings are not taken. After coffee, we headed across the harbour to Waiheke Island where most of the fun happens away from the CBD. It is the “Manly” (Sydney)of Auckland. $NZ5 later and we were sipping some of the best white wine in the world at the Cable Bay Vineyard. For $NZ45 you get a tour of the best five winery/eateries in Northern New Zealand; Cable Bay Vineyard, Kennedy Point Vineyard, Mudbrick Vineyard, Stoneridge Vineyard and TeWhau Vineyard. We remember most of the day but the milieu of good food and better wines was hard to keep up with.

You could just walk around the foreshore and have almost as good a time.

Historically,

Way back, around a hundred and eighty million years ago, the Mauri’s had a falling out with their neighbours in Gondwana, a large land mass in the northern hemisphere, so they grabbed their oars, gave their island a push and paddled south for a few thousand kilometres. It was visionary of their Chiefs to throw out the anchors very close to a nearby country that has easy residency visa access for their citizens.

In the 1300’s the Polynesians, out for a sail, bumped into the islands and named them “Aoteara” or “Land of the Long White Cloud”. In 1642 Dutchman Abel Tasman dropped by whilst on a Pacific cruise and, as the Dutch do, promptly renamed them to “Nieuw Zeeland” and left happy.  

Captain Cook popped in for a visit in 1769 and was a bit smarter as in 1840 Nieuw Zeeland joined the British Empire under the Treaty of Waitangi and became “New Zealand-Land of the Long White Cloud”.

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