#73 Visiting Auckland Between the Storms

Last stop on our trip to Australia and New Zealand

The last day and night of our cruise to Australia and New Zealand were spent in Auckland, the largest city on the North Island. We had a dramatic sail in before dawn when I could see all the lights of the city shining. The area was first settled in the Maori people in the 1300’s. Auckland is another city that, like Seattle, Toronto, and Sydney, that has a Space Tower dominating its skyline. Architect friends, why did we build these things?

Auckland at dawn photo by Joan Naidorf

For the first time during our trip to New Zealand, we docked at a dedicated cruise ship terminal right in the downtown area.  This made it quite easy to get on and off the ship to explore. The morning of our arrival was foggy with low lying clouds as we took a morning city tour by motor coach. The city lies on an isthmus between two harbors that are the remnants of seven ancient volcanoes.

We passed by the marina area that served as the home base for the Americas Cup Yacht race that was based on Auckland in 2021. Much of the Auckland waterfront was developed into commercial and residential areas during the four-year preparation for the event.  Several racing groups and recreational boaters store their vessels in this area.  We had a light rain as we passed through the massive park called the Auckland Domain and the neoclassical Auckland War Memorial and Museum. We had a stop in the suburb of Parnell, settled in 1841.  We walked along the waterfront and grabbed a coffee from the shops.

Volcanic Remnant near Auckland photo by Joan Naidorf

By afternoon, the fog and clouds were completely gone as the sun shone on our excursion to the small suburban city of Devonport. The first part of our journey took us over the iconic Auckland Harbour Bridge which was built in 1959, completely changing the access to the northern suburbs of Auckland. Philly folks will recognize a similar look to the Girard Point Bridge in South Philadelphia that carries Interstate 95.

Auckland Harbour Bridge

 The three volcanic Maunga (Takapuna, Takarunga and Takararo) were ideal for Māori fortified settlements as they had quality soil to grow kumara and large tidal beaches to collect seafood. European settlement began in earnest in the mid 1800s, with farming and shipbuilding the main industries. In 1840 a flagstaff was raised on Mt Victoria/ Takarunga. The deep-water harbor was used for naval vessels and the area became New Zealand’s first and largest naval base.

View of Auckland from Devonport
photo by Joan Naidorf

 Today, locals and tourists roam the streets to partake in the shops, restaurant and pubs. The view across the harbor of the Auckland skyline is the stuff of picture postcards. We managed to find a pleasant beer garden to have a pint before we hopped onto the ferry back to Auckland.  The downtown ferry terminal was located just next to the cruise ship terminal.  We enjoyed our last sunny afternoon before our final evening on board.

 The morning wake-up alarms came at 2:00 on Tuesday morning to meet a bus waiting to take us to the airport.  Our routing carried us on a flight to Sydney before boarding a non-stop flight back to Los Angeles.  Of course, that fourteen-hour flight took us back over the international dateline.  From LAX, we still had our five hour non-stop flight back to DC which somehow still arrived on Tuesday.

This was a long and grand trip that lasted nearly three weeks.  The jet lag and sleep disruption lasted another three weeks after we got home. Shortly after getting home,  huge cyclone lashed New Zealand and added more to her flooding woes.  I feel that we missed some highlights because of our itinerary and some of the missed port calls.  We also missed some of the most famous wine regions.  No problem.

We might just have to go back.