KatiKati to Auckland and area

Still traveling with our friends Bruce and Carolynn. The plan is that we will stay with them until the Monday after New Years and then they will fly back to their home in Christchurch leaving us with their vehicle until we leave New Zealand.

For our first night in Auckland we stay in a hotel in downtown Auckland. It is called a Formula One and the concept is similar to what has been done in Tokyo for years. Give a traveler everything that they want in a space 80% less then they are used to. The first picture shows the width of the building which can't be any wider than an alley.

As you can see from the other pictures there is enough room to step into the room, fall right into the bed or go left into the stainless steel bathroom where the toilet and the shower are separated only by a curtain. To me it feels like a Pullman train stateroom with the two exceptions that they don’t fold up your bed in the morning and you wake up where you started.

That night we have dinner with some friends (John and Merrill) of B&C who are traveling to India the next day. B&C are staying at their place and, once they leave, so will we. I thought it was a great dinner. Every time John or I mentioned something we had it in common. Unfortunately I don’t think the others were as enthusiastic about us reliving every part of our past. We thought it was damn interesting.

Bruce dropped us back at the hotel that night and we made plans to meet him the next morning after he dropped John and Merrill at the airport. We did wander up the street and found the oldest surviving pub in Auckland which now makes it own eight kinds of beer. One type of beer for every table in the place.

Wondered around Auckland the next morning looking at the tourists, seeing the wharf and marvelling (actually I was swearing) at the high price of everything. Even with the Canadian dollar worth $1.25 New Zealand nothing is a real bargain except for cheap bottles of wine.

There are some things that you should known about New Zealand in general as well as several changes since the last time we were here 23 years ago.

First the money is still multicoloured with the bigger the denomination the bigger the bill. Secondly it is now made out of plastic. It even has a little clear window in the bill that you can look through. If you are a total idiot you can look through it at your spouse and make funny comments. (By the way if you do that then don’t expect them to have any sense of humour about it.)

Secondly they have steadily raised the minimum wage to $12/hr. On the other hand a latte at Starbuck’s costs over $5.

Most coffee shops etc in Auckland offer internet but only if you pay $10/hr or more and sign up to one of what seems like three hundred different internet providers. We found only one (Esquires) who offer free internet to their paying customers. They are now our new favourite NZ coffee shop.

They now sell beer and wine in grocery stores (as any civilized society should) and the price of wine in particular has dropped. There are still liquor stores around who sell wine/beer as well as the hard stuff but the price differences are sometimes as much as $15/bottle for the same wine. I am pretty sure that civilization here is not coming to an end any time soon. It is unfortunate that the Canadian provinces are convinced that the world will end if they did the same.
Auckland is a city full of the remains of Empire with many of the same street and building names as Toronto or Victoria. The older buildings were all dedicated by Baron Count Sir Harding of Rivercrest LCM BCN HGF XXX etc etc.

Here and there is a plaque honouring a member of the royal family who was there for the dedication. One of the ferry terminals was dedicated by Prince Edward (hopefully not too early in the morning for him).

There are also lots of tall modern buildings that actually have some style to them. Very few of the unimaginative blocky style we see in Vancouver and Toronto. The city is clustered around the harbour with its bridge crossing the middle and its ferry boats heading to the different suburbs and communities scattered on the shores.