The document below was written by David Cunningham chronicling our trip to New Zealand earlier this year.
Jan 27th – Feb 3rd, 2013
Sunday Jan 27th – Charley Mallon and I arrived in Auckland about 7:15 am and went out and got our rent car. Drove to our hotel in downtown Auckland and got there about 9 am (too early to get a room). Did some email, and then walked to the tower and went up and looked at the views. We had a nice mussel lunch at the Occidental Bar on Vulcan St and went back and got checked into our room. Took a short nap and went on a pub crawl around Auckland. After several beers we found a Mediterranean restaurant, had a crusty bread appetizer (beet dip and hummus) and had a lamb dinner, managed to stay up until about 10 pm.
Monday Jan 28th – left before 9 am (didn’t want to pay another $25 to park) and headed to the Coramandel Peninsula (north east). We stopped for breakfast on the way and drove around the peninsula (narrow and curvy). Had pies for lunch and found a hotel in Rotura (a Quality Inn) that had Wi-Fi (after a fashion).
Tuesday Jan 29th – drove to the Waitomo Glow Worm Caves, very cool walk/boat tour (hand pulled), and then drove down to Taupo and stayed at the Adelphia Hotel, and did some email. Settled in for a big Indian combo dinner, was way too much.
Wednesday Jan 30th – drove around Lake Taupo and then took a cow path to Wanganui (20 – 30 one-lane bridges, unpaved part of the way, 1 one-lane tunnel). Stayed at the Grand Hotel downtown (did some email), ate dinner at the pub in the hotel, and had beers at two or three places within walking distance.
Thursday Jan 31st – drove into Wellington, stopping at Paraparaumu to check out the train station, schedule a cab while we were there (to take us to the airport). We checked out our hotel in Wellington (and did some email) and picked up our tickets to the 7’s matches. We drove around the bay (went by the stadium), and then drove back north looking for a hotel. We wandered around quite a bit and finally ended up in Porirua.
Friday Feb 1st – drove back into Wellington, dropped off our luggage at the hotel (did some email), returned the rental car, and then got some breakfast. Headed to the stadium and got there about noon and stayed until the last game was over about 10:30, managed to get some beers, pies, corn dogs, burgers, etc. The weather was nice warm in the sun and cool in the shade, we had enough warm gear though as we learned the first year in San Diego. The US lost to Spain (what’s up with that?), were ahead but tied England (the eventually tourney winner), and lost to NZ. It was a cross between Halloween and Mardis Gras in the stadium, with most folks in costume partying and not paying much attention to the games. After the last game we headed back to the hotel as my cold was getting me down, got there about midnight.
Saturday Feb 2nd – got up, had breakfast, did email and wandered around a bit (shopping). Walked to the stadium and took it a little easier, but still managed to have brats and pies. The US lost to Fiji (and played bad), Kenya beat NZ in OT to make the finals, but then lost to England. We left about 9:30 and walked downtown, lots of folks out and about so ended up getting Whoppers and beers at the Welsh Dragon.
Sunday Feb 3rd – got up and did email (our free 20 minutes), went and got breakfast, ended up in pub where they had the Ireland/Wales game on (Ireland won) to kill some time. Went and checked out at 11 am, and went back to the pub to watch the end of the game. Walked to the train station, luggage and all, bought our tickets and found a pub that had the Scotland/England game on (England won big). Got on our train, left at 1:14 pm to Paraparamumu, 40 minute ride, and our taxi was waiting to take us to the airport, just like clock-work. Our return flight to SFO was early so we managed to get on the earlier flight back to DEN, very nice even though we had to give up our first class seats. Got home in time to watch the second half of the Super Bowl (I can’t believe the Ravens won!) Great trip, sorry I had to come back early as I would have liked to have spent some time seeing the south island – next time I guess.
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