Tag: Auckland

58. Auckland – Bali – Frankfurt – Home

Sunday, April 7: Auckland: Partly cloudy
Bali: Sunny
Hannover: Sunny but cold

I was able to use the switch from daylight savings as expected, and the others were fairly early out of bed as well. Finished off the sultana bran, the OJ, the coffee and the milk, and that left only a couple of slices of bread and some margarine.

Was well in time for my bus and just had to walk down Commerce St and the Sky Bus was the next thing to arrive. Yesterday’s last minute return to St Helliers to print out the bus ticket, while costing only $1.95, was doubly superfluous because the image on the camera was sufficient. Once at the airport after 45 minutes the printed out boarding passes also turned out to be love’s labor lost as they were printed out for me when I presented my luggage (25.1 kg in the suitcase). The only thing that the online check-in was good for was getting a seat. Read more…

57. Rainy Day in Auckland

Saturday, April 6: Rain in the morning, clearing by late afternoon

Jocelyn’s

Everyone was up and about for their various activities today – Jocelyn was going on one of Stephen’s hikes to Mt Auckland and was thoroughly prepared, and I put the pieces of my breakfast together in a leisurely fashion because I suspected that the rain was going to put a damper on all of Rayna’s plans. Toasted my toast with care not to set off the smoke alarm again.

Rayna reported for duty on the dot of 8:00 with a suggestion to wait an hour, which soon became more than two. The eventually agreed upon plan was to spend the morning at the museum, and she called by pretty soon after to check out my digs and take us there. Cameras went along for the ride, but there was not much in the museum to photograph (very dark), although there was an exhibition of early Auckland landscape photography that we blithely walked past. Had a more intensive look at the volcano and geology sections which confirmed my surmise that Whangaroa (an old volcanic field) was rubble that was the remains of the disintegrating volcano more than 20 mya. Read more…

56. Auckland

Friday, April 5: Sunny but cool, interesting clouds developing during the day

Walking: 10 km

Jocelyn’s

No need to get up early this morning but had forgotten to turn off the alarm so it was breakfast @ 8:00, then down to the bus to return the PLB.

So much bus riding for $6.9! Both trips took longer than an hour, and one change of bus (I had memorised the street plan of the change and was relatively confident I was at the right place) involved an unlabelled bus stop, no number, no timetable, no nothing. But I got there and and recognised the surroundings from the pick up trip with Rayna, now nearly eight weeks ago. Read more…

55. Whangarei – Auckland

Thursday, April 4: Cool and somewhat cloudy in Whangarei, sunny in Auckland

Jocelyn’s (airbnb, $62.7)

All packed up quite neatly after breakfast, which was not as populated today as it had been two days ago. The instant coffee still seemed to have an admixture of coffee grounds in it though, but the orange juice and mild could be finished before the journey began.

I left @ 8:40 and it took only a couple of minutes to get to the Hub. Had the podcasts playing away on the ipod and hope to make a dent on the backlog. Barbara turned up shortly after me, and just after 9:00 the bus was already there, and so could make a longer break. I raced up to the top to claim a front seat, and we pushed off at pretty much on the dot of 9:15. this is an “express” service, meaning: Stops along the way, but no break in Kaiwaka. Traffic flow was fairly good until we reached a critical point just before Warkworth. After that Auckland was not far. A couple of rainbows made an appearance along the way. Read more…

52. Paihia – Whangarei

Monday, April 1: Showers the whole day, very humid, clearing in the afternoon

The Cell Block, 91 Cameron St., single with toilet ($60)

The alarm hadn’t yet rung (by about a minute or so) but I was still up @ 7:30 and had plenty of time for breakfast and to check the net to see if my further booking in Auckland had been reneged upon (it had not), and pack the rest of the stuff, which was all done by 9:00. Locked up Jarrad’s place and put the key into the safe and away I was having selected a relatively rain-free period via radar to time my walk to the bus stop.

Was about the first there, although peu-a-peu people gathered, and so far the weather held, I was in no rush to get on the bus when it finally arrived with about ten minutes’ delay, as I was going to be one of the first passengers off again. When I came to load my luggage the driver told me to put it inside the bus (a double-decker again) which also made sense. Read more…

51. Rainy Day in Paihia

Sunday, March 31: Rain on and off during the day, drier towards evening

Jarrad’s

Breakfast had to be in two parts this morning because the bread I had left behind had indeed gone off in the meantime. It was sultana bran to begin with and an orange juice, then down to the shops for the bread, and back here for toast and coffee.

Spent the rest of the morning trying to get something in airbnb near Rayna’s place with a reasonable check-in and not too complicated rules (surely they must have an option to exclude single males from even seeing some places if they are non grata?!?) and eventually sent off a request that took a long time in being answered and was rejected in the end. Then the question of the cooker replacement at home had to be addressed, at least in its initial stage. Read more…

43. Rotorua – Paihia

Saturday, March 23: Cloudy in the morning, a lot of places in fog, clearing somewhat during the day, showers in the evening

Jarrad’s (airbnb, $72.6)

A day for an early start. I had managed to get to bed before 10:00 last night, and was awake @ 5:30 for the alarm. Had the remains of the orange juice, a cup of coffee, then what was left of the milk. Everything packed up OK and I was ready to go by 6:30. Was down at the bus an hour before it left and realised I could have taken one of the city buses down, since they started early enough. Next time set the alarm for 6:00. Read more…

42. Rotorua: Rainbow Springs

Friday, March 22: Cloudy the whole day, although quite variable, a drop or two of rain in the afternoon

Funky Green Voyager (room behind Nick)

Again it was a matter of inserting my breakfast (variation: Chicken herb loaf instead of ham) between the various other guests this morning, and I was packed and had the suitcase and pack in the office well before 10:00

Today I decided I would have a look at the gondolas that go up the hill (Skyline) and also try the kiwi park not far from that, Rainbow Springs. Caught a bus into town and got a transfer ticket for the #1 bus that actually goes out to the place. Bit of a wait in town, and the bus was quite full, but I was soon on the outskirts and on my way to the attractions. Read more…

38. Taupo: Acacia Bay

Monday, March 18: Overcast to begin with, becoming fine, hot & sunny with some active looking cumulus clouds

Cycling: 17.8 km

Donna’s

Today was a day for planning the rest of the trip and trying to get the rest of the planning to set. After a shower and a breakfast of cornflakes & muesli, toast with the last of the tramping butter, OJ, and coffee, I set to work to try to confirm the reservation in Rotorua, and then to see how to get from there to the Far North.

Flights were still available for around $300 – slightly above that if you wanted only an hour’s wait in Auckland, slightly below if a four hour wait was OK. Considering it was the very last minute (and the Saturday was cheaper than the surrounding days) I wonder what it would have cost if I had tried a week ago – as I should have. In any case a 6:45 departure would have meant getting up @ 5:00, and I still would have needed transport to Paihia from Bay of Islands airport, so at this point in time the bus was the last acceptable solution in terms of price v. duration @ $84 – start is @ 7:45, arrival is 17:15. This is @ the limit of decidability. Read more…

28. Whanganui – New Plymouth

Friday, March 8: Rain on and off throughout the day

Paul’s (airbnb, $37.6)

Made the acquaintance of Sid & Angela at breakfast this morning, and a discussion of criticality followed – he was an (Indian) epidemiologist in public health, and I never found out what she did, except that she plays the piano rather well, and the upright in the lounge room was in tune. They escaped rather quickly after that and I was left on my own with Marina & Brennagh.

Surprise, surprise was that Dempsey’s had refunded me the full $108 I was asking for. There is a real issue of getting email through to them, though, as mine was already labelled as spam. I deleted my remark on their facebook page and will leave it at that for a while. Read more…

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