grizzlo arrives iin Auckland

Arrival in Auckland

After a long but relatively comfortable flight ( I managed to watch 2 movies) we arrived in Auckland. Our shuttle took us to our B&B in the seaside suburb of Devonport,but since it was 8:30 am on Sunday morning our room was unavailable until noon and we were forced to explore before crashing. We were struck by the tropical vegetation- bouganvillias, hibiscus hedges,and big blue agapanthus flowers everywhere. We had a lovely breakfast and the best cafe latte in the world in a charming cafe overlooking the water. We had a great view of Auckland from the ferry dock, and enjoyed the Victorian architecture of the grand old hotel "The Esplanade" , and lovely Victorian cottages on the waterfront promenade. We got really ambitious and climbed climbed one of the town's extinct volcanos at North Head and had great views of the city. The head was a former maori pa or fort and then became a defensive fort for Auckland which was in active use until the 1960s.We watched parasailers on the famous Cheltenham beach and saw kids sliding down the hill on pieces of cardboard- a kiwi version of tobogganing. The highlight of our day was having dinner with Wendy's sister Deborah- great food, lots of laughs and wonderful kiwi hospitality.