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Trip 1-22 Jan, 2007 Australia-New Zealand cruise aboard the M.S. Statendam (Holland America). Karen (pronounced CAR-en) and Dave Gibson booked this trip back in June and asked us to go with them (we met the Gibsons on the Holland America Ryndam, during a Millennium Cruise through the Panama Canal). We (Jacqueline and Robin Simonds of Beagle Bay, Inc) thought that was a fine old idea and signed up—never guessing that in the Fall we’d buy a new house and start renovating, vastly complicating our lives! But I’m glad we went, as we got some much needed rest as well as seeing a part of the world we’d always wanted to see.
[Note: all pictures taken by Robin Simonds, unless otherwise noted. © Copyright 2007, All Rights Reserved. We have high resolution files of each photo available for purchase at reasonable rates.]
New Zealand
New Zealand or, as the Maori call it,
Aotearoa
(Land of the Long White Cloud), is an amazing country, divided into two islands with distinct
characters. Then there’s Auckland—which is to New Zealand as New York is
to the U.S. That is, everyone in the world knows that NYC is a big city
in the States, but Americans don’t feel it represents the whole country.
Same thing for Auckland and Kiwis. So, with that in mind, I’ll break up
my tale into three parts.
Auckland (Where you
are now)
South Island
North Island
To read how the trip began, please go to the first page of this blog:
Australia
19 January, Auckland
 |
| Auckland Harbor, featuring the Customs House |
Arrived in
Auckland early a.m. and opened our curtains to discover we had
docked alongside a hotel (no woodchips!). We could see right into their
rooms—which would have honked me off had I been in the hotel. Went to
the Gibson’s cabin (which was facing the harbor, and thus had a more
pleasant view) to wait to be cleared.
Eventually, we were allowed to disembark. The scene at customs was
unpleasant. A long line snaking through the building while our bags were
inspected for “quarantined items.” They should have coordinated this
better! The worst part was, no matter how many times we’d been warned
about NZ’s hard-nosed agri-laws (“no food, not one crumb should be taken
off the ship!”), there was quite a pile of contraband by each
inspector’s table.
 |
| The Parnell Rose Garden in Auckland. Photo by JCS. |
The bus and taxi areas were a madhouse. We’d been warned by the Gibsons’ suite concierge that it can be up to a 2 hour wait to get a cab from dockside, so we’d booked the city tour with drop off at our hotel (which was the “official” cruise line hotel). As we pushed our luggage trolleys to the coaches, a man grabbed ours and said, “Get on board. I’ll take your luggage.” He said the same thing to the Gibsons. Off we went on a city tour.
 |
|
Dave and Karen Gibson, Robin Simonds |
First we stopped at the Parnell Rose Garden, which is also a War
Memorial. A nice view. Next we wandered about the millionaire’s
neighborhoods. Then we drove up to Mount Eden, which is the highest of
48 volcanic cones in and around Auckland. Then we were zipped through a
couple of high-end shopping districts with some perfunctory comments
from our young driver. By now we were under the impression that our
driver wasn’t interested in giving us a tour (it was supposed to be 2
hours). We arrived at the
Langham
Hotel an hour early.
 |
| Auckland's "One Tree Hill" which is now "None Tree Hill." You should read the explanation here. |
The small bus’ luggage compartment was unloaded... and the Gibson’s bags
weren’t on it! The Holland America reps were less than helpful, because
they insisted we were a private tour (um, we’re on your tour, dummy!).
The hotel people had no clue. And the bus driver had no radio. Robin got
our bags and schlepped them up to our room (which we’d e-mailed ahead
and gotten early rooms). I stayed with Karen and Dave as we watched 3
more buses arrive and disgorge passengers and their luggage. One by one,
we were disappointed. Finally, the last bus showed up and there was the
luggage. I thought Karen was going to melt with happiness! Our rooms are
very nice, and as on the ship—same floor, different sides.
 |
| The Auckland Cityscape, featuring the Sky Tower |
We went down to the lobby to get our bearings and bumped into the Lodges
and the Goldbergs, who are also staying at the Langham. They suggested
we check out the pub attached to the hotel (Roy and Eddie having already
“sussed” it). We went on down and had a nice lunch, sitting by an open
window and watching the passerby on
Karangahape Road—better
known as “K Road”
Eventually, we wandered down K Road (which is sort of tacky where we
were), walked down (and I do mean DOWN) a side street, then UP
Queen Street. Grabbed some hokey-pokey ice cream to reward our
laborious climb (that was disappointingly not the honeycomb variety).
After that, we voted for a nap.
 |
| Jacqueline Simonds, Dave and Karen Gibson at the SPE (Some Place Else) Pub taking in the street scene on K Road, Auckland. |
Around 5, we met in the Gibson’s room for champagne before going down to the Langham’s (pricey) buffet. It was very nice, though. From there, we grabbed a taxi and were driven out to the suburbs to see the traveling Cirque du Soleil show Varekai. Robin and I have seen just about every Cirque show in Vegas, but had never seen one “under the big top.” I have no idea what made him search the web before we left to see if there were any Cirque shows where we were headed, but he found this show: “Proving,” he said, “that I am really good at finding ways to spend more money!” Karen and Dave hadn’t ever seen a Cirque show before. We were thrilled that the performance was so good. The Gibsons enjoyed it so much they say they can’t wait to see more shows—and share them with their grandkids—when they get home.
20 January
Went to
Kelly Tarlton’s
Antarctic Experience in the morning. A fascinating place on many
fronts. It was built in abandoned sewers... that work just fine for
housing vast amounts of sea water. The attraction invented the walk-thru
tunnel aquarium, now so ubiquitous everywhere. Their collection of
penguins can’t be beat, there were 3 different species and quite a lot
of them.
We watched as they hand-fed giant sting rays. The largest was bigger
than the young woman feeding her and nearly knocked her over several
times. Meanwhile, the fellow doing the narration was at pains to explain
that rays are very gentle, pleasant animals. It’s only when they are
attacked—say a diver (like
Steve Irwin, the “Crocodile Hunter,”
who was recently killed by one)
lands straight on one—that they attack. Their barb has an anticoagulant
that make the sting doubly dangerous.
A really beautiful aquarium with a fish-eye view of Auckland bay.
 |
| Maori Art inside the Information Center at the base of the Sky Tower |
We took a cab back into town, and walked from the
Sky Tower (which is impressive, but none of us were interested in
going up—let alone base-jumping from it!) Down Albert Street. We spotted
a pub that looked pretty good. The Shakespeare Tavern was a brewery and
had pretty good “pub grub.”
Then took a cab to the Auckland
Museum. A very nice selection of Maori artifacts, plus some details
we didn’t see in Wellington (although we probably just missed them).
However, the mori (temple or meeting place) at
Wellington's
Te Papa was much
more ornate than the Auckland Museum’s. We signed up for the Maori
performance and being called to the show with ceremonial conch shells
was pretty impressive. While we did see some dances, the presentation
was sort of jokey and the whole thing was rather short (on information
as well as dancing). Also went through a large exhibition on the great
Polynesian sea migration. Fascinating!
Took a cab back to the hotel. The radio squawked and the driver went to
answer it with his right hand, placing the stump of his left arm on the
wheel. The car swerved a bit. I thought, at first, that we were toast.
But then I thought: "Hey, even the worst writer on the planet wouldn’t
kill off her characters in such a stupid way” so I relaxed.
Got back to the hotel and saw two wedding parties—quite lavish affairs
with multiple bridesmaids and ring bearers. Apparently the Langham is
the place to have one’s reception! Had a drink in the lounge, and while
there, ran into Eddie. We decided to all meet up after dinner in the
lounge later that night.
 |
| From the hill on which the Auckland Museum sits, we looked down and saw at least 5 cricket games going. |
For dinner that night, we’d decided on a place we’d seen from the bar,
Wildfire, a Brazilian BBQ place (OK, not New Zealand cuisine but it was
our last night together and anything was considered). But the concierge
discovered they were full. He suggested another place.
That evening, we took the hotel shuttle to Customs St. and walked to
Albert St. Instead of the upscale place we were expecting, the “Angus
Steak House” was in the basement of an old building.
“I don’t know about this,” Dave said. “It’s not too late to hunt up
something else.”
“Well, let’s just look,” I said. “The smells are right, and the
concierge wouldn’t send us to some trashy dive.”
We walked in to find the place mostly empty and those who were there,
casually dressed and mostly Asians. Locals. Not your average tourist
joint for sure.
The waiter walked up. “We have reserva....” Dave started. It seemed kind
of useless to mention we’d called ahead when there were so many open
tables. “We can still back out of this,” Dave said under his breath.
Karen looked like she’d swallowed a lemon. Whole.
But Robin and I trust our noses. Also, everyone’s plates were empty (in
point of fact, they were boneyards). “Let’s give it a try,” I said.
We were taken to a picnic-type table. The waiter immediately brought
bread—four slices of store-bought wheat bread with 4 slabs of butter on
top,
Dave looked at me and cocked his brow. I knew he was thinking ‘It’s
still not too late, kiddo.’ I admit I was wondering if he wasn’t right.
The waiter came and explained that the restaurant expected you to select
your own steak from an array of beautifully cut (massive) steaks, lamb
or pork (NOT someplace for a vegetarian to go). Then we’d take it to the
chef, who would grill it to order in front of us.
“Oh, I’ve heard of these. Cool!” I said. And so we set the whole thing
going.
As we waited for our steaks, I observed the other diners. I tried hard
not to laugh as I watched a young Asian woman devour an entire 20 ounce
T-Bone... then take a picture of the remains. Next she got herself a
massive salad at the salad bar and took a picture of that, before
consuming the whole thing and taking another picture. She did this with
a gigantic slice of chocolate meringue pie and a cappuccino which was
about big enough for her to swim in. Somewhere, there must be a blog of
this mighty repast....
Our steaks arrived... and were just terrific. By the time we left, the
place was packed.
Took the shuttle back to the hotel and settled into the bar to await our
English friends. It was a while before they joined us, but we were all
tickled we could be together one last time. Just as we were enjoying
ourselves, a well-dressed, inebriated couple who had been swanning
around the room took positions at the bar. The man began to belt out
(sans microphone) the 60's Tom Jones hit “Delilah,”
then launched into other half-finished hits of that era. All the while,
his slinkily-dressed female counter-part did this bizarre “sexy” cat
dance that made us all wonder if she was going to start shedding clothes
(I had money on exactly when).
We broke up for the night, with the couple boozily wandering about the
room trying to collect accolades.
What a weird day!
21 January, Leaving Day
 |
| View from the Auckland Maritime Museum |
Got up late for brunch with Karen and Dave. A nice buffet. We were all
amused to sight the couple from last night, greatly hung-over and
picking glumly at their food--but in a choice spot so they could see and
be seen. Either they think they are important or they are important
where they came from, but they certainly behave as if everyone should
know them and be excited by their presence.
The Gibsons had to check out at 1... even though their flight doesn’t
leave until 8. So they left the meal having to re-pack and get ready to
leave their luggage with the concierge the rest of the day. Robin and I
kept the room an extra day because our flight doesn’t leave until 11 pm.
We planned a fairly full day.
 |
| The Greenpeace ship Esperanza at the harbor across from the Auckland Maritime Museum. |
Took the hotel shuttle to the drop-off point, then walked down to the
wharf and the Auckland
Maritime Museum. There was an extensive collection both inside the
large building and outside on the docks. We liked the full-sized boats
everywhere and the
America’s Cup display (NZ won it in 1995). Robin liked the crane
barge. Wellington has an older one, but this one he could ramble around
in. Spent the better part of 3 hours there.
 |
| Auckland's Harbor Walk to the Custom's House, with period lanterns. |
Had a snack by the wharf and enjoyed playing with the ravenous wrens who
had no fear about stealing our bread. Watched the
Greenpeace ship
Esperanza having an
open house. You’ll recall that their
Rainbow Warrior was sunk by the French in this harbor in
1985 .
Started to head back to the hotel, but we were way-laid by the siren
song of one last holey-pokey ice cream (still not the honeycomb variety,
but very good anyway).
Found one last souvenir to purchase at the Maori handcraft store before
heading to the shuttle... where we met Karen and Dave. They introduced
us to a couple they’d just met who are from
Genoa, Nevada. They were
just about to take a Princess Cruise. Small world.
 |
| Jacqueline Simonds contemplating the long airplane ride home. |
Went back to the hotel to re-pack and generally rest. At 8:30 we got a
cab and went to the airport. The driver had just returned from 6 weeks
touring the American West and was already planning his return. He told
us that he’d discovered the wonders of the American service “OnStar”
by pushing all the buttons on the console and then having the concierge
service, emergency service and every other service call him back (“A
talking car! What will Americans think of next!”). A long but funny
story... and a charming way to leave Auckland.
Ready to go home. We miss
Bert, the beagle. But we’ll be back to New
Zealand for sure!
Notes
Flying to and from Australia / New Zealand
 |
| A water lily at the Wellington Botanical Gardens. |
Try not to get a United flight. They are using old 747s with the narrow seats in the economy section (even the "Economy Plus" was cramped) and pretty old equipment. Air New Zealand has newer planes (we flew a 777), with slightly larger (economy) seats. They have a very high-tech entertainment system with TVs in every seat and the ability to select from 40 movies.
Better yet, save up your money and book a business class seat.
If you are going to take a plane from Auckland:
The first security checkpoint is very easy. However, they won't even let you through the International Checkpoint until your plane is waiting at the gate. This is a very thorough, no-nonsense security check. We lost our jar of honey (which we got in the Taieri Gorge) here, because they were sure it was a gel that could be used to blow up the plane ("Um, no, actually I'm planning on spreading it on some English muffins when I get home, Officer"). Funny, it didn't bother them at all at the first security check.
Take an empty water bottle through the International Check-point. They will not allow water through this point (yes, it's now OK in the U.S., but apparently, these fellas haven't gotten the memo on that). You can fill up your bottle in the waiting room bathroom tap. Otherwise, it is a long, dry trip (the Air New Zealand folks did hand out a lot of water, but not enough for my taste).
 |
| Jacqueline Simonds readying to fire off the Endeavour at the Sydney Maritime Museum. |
Books we read on the trip (hey, we're publishers. Books are life!):
Eragon by Christopher Paolini: J read (R read it last
Fall). A nice epic, although fairly derivative of every epic fantasy
you've ever read. It made my blue pencil fingers itch. I enjoyed it,
though.
Eldest by Christopher Paolini: R and J read. An improvement
on
Eragon. Paolini is definitely developing as a writer. The
addition of multiple perspectives helps the story.
Scorpion Coast by Clive Cussler: R read. A really dreadful,
formulaic adventure story with a Fox-News slant. J tried to read, but
threw it across the cabin after 40 pages. This was left for the cabin
steward to do with as he liked.
Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan: R and J read. This is
Ms. Tan's re-interpretation of Thornton Wilder's
Bridge Over San Luis Rey. Totally unlike her previous books.
A really interesting read. Don't read on a plane. The Nats (the spirits,
not the bugs) tend to sneak off the page....
Guide Books:
Lonely Planet New Zealand
Lonely Planet Sydney
Lonely Planet Auckland
 |
| Milford Sound, Fjordland
National Park, New Zealand. |
Weight Gain
Everyone who's never been on a cruise always sites the "I'll gain a lot of weight" excuse not to go. Well, as with most things, you are in control of your own destiny. We kept to our usual routine for breakfast (coffee and a muffin) and lunch (usually a salad). We only "let ourselves go" at dinner (usually 5 courses (including some fabulous desserts) with wine). But we walked a LOT. When not on land, we did the mile walk around the Promenade Deck.
We gained 5 lbs each. We lost the weight within 2 weeks, Hey, you paint walls and pound hardwood floors; I guarantee your blubber will melt off, too.
Want to write to us about our trip? e-mail info AT beaglebay.com!
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© Copyright 2007, Jacqueline Church Simonds
