Auckland 2016

What's covered?

The final stop at the end of our tour, a holiday of a lifetime that we were so fortunate to be able to do.

6 December

We had a good drive all the way to the hotel without the really heavy traffic we had seen on the way up. We stopped at Dargarville for coffee and found a nice department store called Fosters that reminded us a little of Manns in Cranleigh. There we finally managed to get a present for Philip and Sam, interlocking table mats similar to those given to us at the Sanctuary. Our last stop before Auckland was on the outskirts where we had lunch at Top of the Dome.

We were too early to check in to the Hilton, Auckland so I left Gill at the hotel while I returned the hire car. Filling up first was a challenge as the GPS wanted me to turn right into a road where there was a no right turn. I went around a block to approach it from the opposite side only to find a no left turn! Not to be beaten I took another route to it only to find it had been demolished. I eventually found how to access the location and returned the car. They wanted to charge me $15 per day for the upgrade but I said I had been quoted $10. Eventually they did agree to charge what I had been quoted. In all it must have taken 45 minutes in the Avis office. I also learned that Avis NZ do not tag their cars as do Avis Australia so the toll on the way up and back down had not been paid. Avis checked that no fine was showing and when I later logged in I was only charged $2.30 each way.

I walked back to the hotel to find our luggage still in the hall but I was assured it would be sent straight up and that Gill had gone to the room.

On the way back from Avis I had seen Portofino and decided it looked nice for dinner. Gill and I went for a walk and Gill agreed the restaurant looked good so we tried to book a table only to find they do not take bookings for less than six people. However they assured me there would be a table and there was, albeit we had to push a little to get an outside table, inside was empty. It was nice to see some options other than what seems to be the standard restaurant choice of lamb (rack or loin), venison, eye steak and fish of the day and we both enjoyed the veal.

This was also the time to cancel the mobile phone contract, which presented a problem. The contract was in Malcolm's name and of course he had died since taking it out. I could not contact Dedani who had helped so much taking out the contract so I contacted Vodafone NZ support and the first lady could not help because I did not have a death certificate for Malcolm. However, she said someone else would be able to deal with it and the second lady was able to cancel the contract. Later I got a reply from Dedani saying he was on leave but would cancel the contract on Thursday. Of course, I could not reply to tell him it had been done!

I tried to book a tour for tomorrow but the request stuck at Submitting so I didn't know if it had gone through. The concierge phoned and booked it again after speaking to Paul who runsTorutours.

7 December

Paul picked us up on time and confirmed that the online booking had not gone through. From Paul's website, the journey covered:

Travel over the Harbour Bridge enjoying the vista of the Waitemata harbor.
Drive through Parnell village, and see the historic Holy Trinity Church.
Visit the Auckland domain, and visit the exquisite Wintergardens. (20 min stop over)
See 360 degree views of Auckland from Mt Eden (Auckland's highest natural point), and learn about the history of the Mountain (25min stop over).
Visit One Tree Hill and drive through the beautiful Cornwall Park, see a working farm and learn about the great history of this park. (10min stopover)
See some of our glamour houses on Paratai Drive (Orakei), and see Auckland's most expensive house.
Visit Bastion point, and see beautiful Harbour views ( 15 min stopover). (From here Paul pointed us to the St Heliers area where my cousin Alan used to live.)

It was an excellent tour that I am happy to recommend.

We were dropped back at the hotel after which we went for some lunch and a brief walk along Queen Street, the main shopping area. Then we returned to the hotel. We dined at one of the nearby quayside restaurants.