New Zealand (Part I): Auckland and the Road to Rotorua

I left San Francisco on Tuesday, January 13, for a 2-week Overseas Adventure Tour (OAT) of New Zealand. In summary, the tour ranged from "great" to "excellent". This was the second tour I have taken with OAT, and I highly recommend the company. I don't know whether they do any sort of group pre-screening when arranging these trips, but, for the second time, they matched me with a great, compatible, enthusiastic, friendly group of folks who were, to a person, up for all the adventures we found in front of us, plus a top-notch tour leader, whom we'll call Rosie [because that's her name] and ace coach driver Allan, who kept on both the straight and narrow AND the windy and narrow, while being an excellent tour companion as well.
After roughly 27 hours in transit [SFO->LAX->Brisbane->Auckland], we found ourselves in downtown Auckland on Thursday afternoon -- with much of our luggage soon to follow.
Rosie took us on a brief walk down to the waterfront and helped us get oriented to the layout of the city before we had a group dinner at a local restaurant.
Friday morning began with a group meeting, where we went over some of the tour logistics, Q & A, and introductions [though most of us had met en route, either at LAX or in Brisbane]. We then headed over to the Auckland Domain, the city's biggest park, for a walk led by a local Maori gentleman and his son, who shared with us some of the customs, history, and culture of the Maori.

The rest of the day was open for individual exploration and optional activities. Before strolling down Parnell Road back to the waterfront, I spent some time in the Auckland Museum, which houses extensive displays of Maori arts and culture, including the war canoe Te Toki a Tapiri and a carved meeting house.



After picking up a six-pack of Monteith's Black Beer (thanks for the tip, Dan Karp!) for that evening's fish 'n chips dinner at Rosie's home, I headed over to the wharf for a 90-minute sailing cruise in Waitemata Harbour.



(Another rider on the cruise mentioned that Neil Young was performing that evening in Auckland -- that's two OAT tours for me where Neil and I have virtually crossed paths, the other time being in Cork, Ireland in late June 2008; before my next OAT tour, I will definitely do my research ahead of time.)
That evening, Rosie had our entire group, plus some of her local friends, over to her home for some take-out fish 'n chips.

It was a great opportunity to get to know one another in a beautiful, relaxed, welcoming setting -- perfect timing before we hit the road the next morning.
On Saturday morning, we stopped at the Michael Joseph Savage Memorial before leaving the area,

and then went to a local farmer's market. We stopped for a visit and lunch at Bev & Ken Buchly's home in Cambridge.


Afterwards, we stopped at a roadside kiwi grove, and then we were off to our first hike of the tour, along the Te Waihou Walkway. This felt like a real local treasure, and some of the sights were stunning.





We arrived in Rotorua late that afternoon, and this was the view that greeted me as I entered my room -- the second or third literally jaw-dropping view I witnessed that day.