Auckland – Harbor Bridge – Bastion Point – Wintergarden

This is our last day on our month long trip through Australia and New Zealand. Tomorrow we fly home. Our hotel in Auckland is in the center of town and is quite lovely and the breakfast this morning was amazing! We’ve been very lucky that all of our hotels have been wonderful and the breakfasts, except for one hotel, have been excellent. But if truth be told, we do get some of the best rooms since we have traveled with Overseas Adventure Travel – Grand Circle so often.

We boarded our coach for a tour around the city, stopping first to see the Harbor Bridge. Before the bridge opened in 1959, the only way passenger vehicles could cross the harbor was by ferry which was a time consuming, expensive and thus became an infrequently made journey. Situated on the nation’s main artery (State Highway 1) more than a billion cars have travelled across the steel bridge since it was constructed.

As we traveled along, Catherine mentioned that prostitution in New Zealand is legal. There isn’t a red light district like in Amsterdam and there are no pimps. The ladies are called sex workers, they pay taxes, and usually work out of their homes.

We passed where New Zealand’s America’s Cup boat is being housed. There was a sneak peek offered to the public a few weeks ago, but for the most part, the design is a well kept secret until the race.

We passed Holy Trinity Cathedral where Sir Edmund Hillary was buried from. Sir Hillary was a mountaineer and an explorer and he and his Sherpa became the first climbers to have reached the summit of Mount Everest. He led an amazing life and Allan and I are members of the Sir Edmund Hillary club with Overseas Adventure Travel since we have travelled so often with them.

The next stop was to Bastion Point (you can google about its interesting history) and then on to Auckland Domain WinterGarden. The gardens were spectacular, with many gorgeous flowers that I have never seen. The display changes regularly within the glass houses, but the flowers blooming at this time were truly rare. One glass house is heated and shows lush tropical and heat-loving plants while the other house displays temperate plants changing with the seasons. There also is a fern area that is dense with different types of ferns and trees.

We went back to the hotel to spend an afternoon on our own before the Farewell Dinner tonight. Allan and I walked around since it was a lovely sunny day, after this morning’s sprinkle of rain.

At 5:30 we all took the ferry over to enjoy the Farewell Dinner. We had a lot of laughs and we were sorry that our time together is ending. You really get to know people very well, being with them every day for a month. It was a good group and we traveled well together.

We went back to the hotel and Catherine gave a recap of our time together. It’s amazing to realize all the wonderful adventures we had here in New Zealand. The country is beautiful with its volcanoes, glaciers, meadows, beaches, and of course the majestic mountains that were covered in snow.

Catherine gave each of us a little gift and a written award to go with it, highlighting something that we did that she remembered that she thought was great. Allan got shot glasses and his award read “The award for being able to say he actually fit in a hobbit’s house!” I received a lovely woven little bag and my award read “The award for being a wahine toa and making it through the nighttime tree walk!” Too funny! BTW… wahine toa means warrior woman. Yep…that’s me!!