Pre-tour: Toronto, Ontario, Canada to
Auckland, New Zealand

Saturday, March 31 - Tuesday, April 3, 2001

Even though the actual tour wasn't to begin until April 4, I was flying out to Auckland to spend an extra couple of days there beforehand. I would also be visiting my friend Brenda, whom I had met on my previous Contiki trip to Spain & Portugal.

In order to arrive in Auckland, New Zealand on Monday, April 2, I had to fly out of my home city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada two days beforehand. So I boarded Air Canada flight 795, on an Airbus A320, at Toronto's Lester B. Pearson International Airport on Saturday, March 31 to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). There, I boarded Air New Zealand flight 1, on a Boeing 747-400, for a 12-1/2 hour flight to Auckland. Being a 747, our airplane needed the whole runway for takeoff, and just when we lifted off the ground, land immediately disappeared and all that was below us was the Pacific Ocean. While both flights, the one from Toronto to Los Angeles and the flight from Los Angeles to Auckland, were very near to capacity, I did have an empty seat beside me on the longer flight to Auckland. That would mean that with this and my previous 2 flights of longer than 6 hours, I had an empty seat beside me. This no doubt had an effect on my ability to sleep during the long flight in order to try and adjust to the 16-hour time difference I would experience upon arriving in Auckland. It was also the most comfortable flight I had ever been on up to that point. The seats used by Air New Zealand not only had foldable headrests to keep your head and neck straight, they also had lumbar support, a footrest, and a very good seat pitch for lots of legroom; I was able to stretch my legs straight out and not bash my kneecaps. I experienced all of about 3 hours of April 1 before crossing the International Dateline. Our flight took off in darkness from Los Angeles and arrived in darkness at Auckland International Airport, at 4:45AM Monday, April 2, a half an hour earlier than scheduled. The entire airport, inside and out was desolate, with little to no activity.

boarding passes from Toronto to Los Angeles, Los Angeles to Auckland

Air Canada Air New Zealand
Star Alliance

After passing through customs and claiming my luggage, I met up with my friend Brenda, who had braved the rain and the dark early morning rise to come pick me up. It was still raining as we walked to the parking lot to Brenda's rental car (her car was currently in the shop for repairs). I began to walk to the right side of the car when Brenda reminded me that the passenger side of the car in New Zealand was on the left, opposite to North America. As Brenda drove, it freaked me out to see the cars driving on the left side of the road, especially since it was still the dark early hours of the morning, in the rain and on rural roads, where most of the lighting was provided only by the car's headlights and the headlights of the oncoming vehicles.

The plan was to spend the first night at Brenda's parents' dairy farm. So soon after dropping off my luggage there, we went into the city. The rain was still coming down fairly hard with no indication of it letting up anytime soon. Brenda dropped me off along Queen St., the main street in Auckland, while she had to head off to work for a couple of hours to clear up some odds and ends.

After getting some money exchanged, I spent most of the time walking around the main downtown area of Auckland, browsing through many local shops, as well as the Downtown Shopping Centre. I had been sent on a mission by friends and family to pick up various items for them while away from home.

Brenda eventually met up with me and we went to, of all places for lunch, a Belgian pub and shared a large bowl of New Zealand mussels cooked in a creamy corn sauce, chips (known in North America as french fries) and washed down by some Belgian beer. It was an excellent first meal in New Zealand (not counting the airplane food on Air New Zealand). Heading back into the Downtown Shopping Centre, where Brenda had parked, she bought for me hokey-pokey flavoured ice cream, an exclusive to New Zealand and parts of Australia. It was a mixture of butterscotch, crispy toffee bits, and caramel, an excellent dessert to have after mussels and beer!

With the weather as poor as it was, any outdoor activities would have to be postponed. I wasn’t disappointed that it was pouring rain ... it was better than the multitude of snowstorms I had experienced in Toronto in the few months prior to arriving in New Zealand.

We headed off to “New Zealand’s Best Visitor Attraction”, Kelly Tarlton’s Antarctic Encounter & Underwater World. There was a wealth of information there about life in the Antarctic, including a recreation of Scott’s Hut at Cape Evans, in Antarctica, from 1911. It was used by Capt. Robert Falcon Scott and his team in their attempts to reach the South Pole. We boarded a Snow Cat vehicle that took us into a recreated Antarctic landscape, that included seeing live penguins playing in snow, ice, and swimming in water. We then proceeded to the fascinating Underwater World, where we were practically swimming with the marine life. The Underwater World consisted of huge aquarium tanks filled with all types of marine life, from all types of fish, manta rays and even enormous sharks. All the marine life was viewable from inside a 114 metre long plexiglass tunnel running along the bottom of the tanks, with a moving walkway. It was a sight to behold as the marine life literally swam around us, with a large number of the underwater creatures as big, if not larger than, the average human being.

Once we were done at Kelly Tarlton’s, we drove back to the farm, where at last I met Brenda’s parents. We sat down to an excellent home-cooked meal. By the time 8:00PM came around, I felt exhausted. I was actually surprised I had lasted that long through the day without feeling tired from the long flight over and the time change. I headed off to bed and was instantly asleep.

I woke up mid-morning on Tuesday to more rain. It wasn’t coming down as hard as it was the day before. However, after breakfast, the sky began to clear a little and the rain had turned into a light mist. I said goodbye to Brenda’s parents and thanked them for their hospitality, as Brenda and I were heading back into the city where I would stay at her place that night. We drove off back into the city to Brenda’s residence and dropped off my luggage. At that point, the clouds were breaking up and the sun was coming out. We then headed west of the big city, through winding roads through thick forest and up and down hills, so steep at times that my ears ended up popping. We drove until we reached the west coast, within the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park. There was a dark sandy beach there, with large bluffs overlooking the beach and the low tide. Overlooking the beach in the centre was Lion Rock, a large rock formation resembling a lion, sitting down, appearing like it was guarding and protecting the land We walked around, climbing in some areas to reach further parts of the beach were we saw waves crashing into the rocky shore. On the walk back, water was washing over some of the footprints we had left, signalling that the tide was slowly coming back in. We then drove a little further into the park where we stopped again and went tramping (in North America, we call it hiking) through the park along a path next to a small river. The path eventually lead to the Kitekite (pronounced "kitty-kitty") Falls. At that point, the clouds had rolled back in and a light rain was coming down again. We walked back and entered the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park visitor information centre, when the rain stopped again and the sun started to peek out from behind the clouds.

We both worked up an appetite with all the walking, climbing, and tramping. We drove into the small town of Titirangi nearby and had lunch at the Hardware Cafe. During lunch, Brenda received a phone call on her cellular phone that the repairs on her car were finished. So we drove back into town and picked up her car and dropped off the rental. After getting her returned car inspected, we drove up to One Tree Hill. Unfortunately, the tree had been cut down a few months earlier and all that was left was the stump. As we were high up on the hill, the wind was fierce. Well, at least it wasn’t raining.

We went back to Brenda’s place where I picked up my Contiki tour documents. Brenda dropped me off at the Park Towers Hotel for my pre-departure meeting for the tour that was to begin the next morning. We all gathered in the front lobby and bar area. There were many who had already begun the tour and spent the couple of days prior up north in the Bay of Islands. This was more of a pickup point for about 14 more people joining the tour, myself included. Here was where I met the people who I would be spending the next two weeks with. Colleen (from California), Melanie (from Germany), and Sheree (from Australia) I had met through the Contiki website message board prior to this trip; this was my first time meeting them in person. To my surprise, there were three other Canadians who travelled the long distance to come to New Zealand: Chad, who was joining up that night, and Indrani and Stuart, both of which were already on the tour from the Bay Islands. From what I heard, I had missed out on some very interesting events that had occurred up in the Bay of Islands... I also met our tour manager, Gavin and our coach driver, Tracy. Gavin had already set up an optional dinner out at Planet Hollywood for anyone who wished to go. I opted not to go, as Brenda was coming by later to pick me up, and together with her friend Deana, we were heading up the 328m high Sky Tower to have dinner at the Orbit Restaurant.

Brenda came by soon after everyone had left for Planet Hollywood. With our reservation at the Orbit Restaurant, we were granted free access to the main observation deck in the Sky Tower, which is the tallest tower in the Southern Hemisphere. After having a drink at the bar, we went up to the observation deck and had fantastic views of Auckland at night. Luckily, after the wild weather we had all day, all the clouds had disappeared this night and it was as clear as the eye could see. There were sections of the floor towards the outer rim of the deck that were made of glass, overlooking the ground far below. Some people were nervous to walk on top of the glass section of the floor, despite it was as thick as the rest of the concrete floor. We then went up to the Orbit Restaurant, which was a rotating restaurant, making one complete revolution every hour. Our table was right next to the outside window, where we would see the city, literally, passing us by. The venison I had for dinner, was excellent, as well as the bottle of red wine we all shared. Brenda also ordered for me, the Altitude Adjuster. It was a large tall drink made up of fives types of alcohol mixed in with grapefruit juice. By the end of the meal, I was feeling slightly buzzed, as we drove off down to the harbour area. The speeding up, braking and going over speed bumps all along the harbour certainly didn’t help. When we finally stopped near the end of the harbour, we had a nice nighttime view of Auckland, especially of the Sky Tower. We then headed back into the city where Brenda dropped off Deana, and then we went back to Brenda's place, where her roommates were already out cold for the night. As with the night before, as soon as I hit the bed (actually, it was a futon this night), I was sound asleep.


Here are a scattering of photos from the Bay of Islands part of the Contiki tour that occurred while I was in Auckland.


 


All above photos courtesy of Michael Lucas

 


Auckland's Sky Tower


Auckland harbour on a very wet and windy day


The penguins at Kelly Tarlton's


The back of the farm...in the distance, past the bay, you can just make out Auckland!


Greeted by the calves


Lion Rock in the middle of the beach


Low-tide on the west coast


Crashing waves


In the picture frame at Waitakere Ranges Regional Park


The One Tree Hill Monument


Brenda standing in for the tree on One Tree Hill


Standing on the glass floor in Sky Tower


Sky Tower from below


Auckland at night

Introduction Day 1: Auckland to Rotorua
Contiki