We arrived in Auckland on November 19th after 5 amazing weeks on our cruise. It was a bitter-sweet disembarkation. The bitter part was saying good bye to so many wonderful passengers and crew whom we got to know quite well. Seabourn considers themselves our “home away from home”, and guests are a part of the “Seabourn family”. And it did feel that way.
The sweet part was that instead of our vacation being over, we were really just beginning our 3 month stay in New Zealand. The first thing we did was rent a car and remind ourselves that they drive on the left side of the road. On most of the islands we visited in the South Pacific they drive on the left. There our biggest challenge as pedestrians was to look right instead of left when crossing the street.
But we also observed in the islands that pedestrians rule. You could step off the curb at almost any time and the drivers would come to a screeching halt to let you cross the street. Try that in New York or Rome. Splat!
So those same rules hold true in NZ. But here, pedestrian crossings are marked with what look like big lollipops - poles with large orange circles on top. Very easy for drivers to see, and it takes some of the suicide mission out of crossing the street.
Fortunately Jeff is not as apprehensive about driving on the left as I am, and he is a very good driver. So for the first week I played the role of navigator. When I finally “went solo” I was fairly confident I could enter a round-about and actually find my way out again, before I ran out of gas.
Thank goodness we have APEX CAR RENTALS in big bold letters on the back window of the car. It gives the locals a heads up that we are tourists and may not know what we are doing.
We rented a little cottage in Devonport for the first 2 months we are in NZ. The town is a 12 minute ferry ride from Auckland. The cottage is cozy and just a block from the beach and a 2 mile walk to the center of Devonport. So the first thing we did after unpacking was head to the grocery store and load up with 8 weeks worth of provisions.
Our first big “ah-ha” was when we wheeled our overflowing shopping cart up to the register. A very friendly woman scanned our items as we waited for someone to bag them. I expected the usual “Paper or Plastic?”, but no such offer was made. Well what we didn’t know is that stores here don’t provide bags. You must bring your own.
So we paid, and piled all the groceries back into the cart which they kindly let us wheel out to our car. Our next purchase was? You guessed it. Bags to haul groceries.
So while we were in the grocery store, I saw this bird flying around the aisles. It was about the size of a sparrow. Occasionally it would land on the floor to scrounge for a crumb, then take to the air again. I expected to hear “Bird on Aisle 4” followed by someone chasing down the bird with a net. But no such thing happened. I’ve since learned that seeing birds in the supermarkets is a common occurrence. They also hang out in restaurants. More than once I’ve started to protect my coffee as a bird flew over it. If I want “cream”, I’ll order it from the server.
Among our first food purchases were lamb chops. This will come as no surprise to those who know Jeff well. This is, by far, his favorite thing to eat. Well, that’s not entirely true. Lamb comes in a close second, behind anything chocolate.
New Zealand was an easy choice for Jeff as a destination for this trip. There are more sheep than people. Really. Jeff went into training on the cruise to prepare himself for the lamb-eating frenzy once we arrived in NZ. He ordered it almost every day for either lunch or dinner. And then he found out that on Seabourn you can order lamb chops for breakfast.
I am not exaggerating (honestly) when I tell you that he had lamb chops for 11 consecutive meals on the ship. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The next day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, etc. He only broke the streak because we got to Auckland and had to disembark. He earned the title of “Lamb King” and does not intend to relinquish it.
One thing that I enjoy back in Florida is Manuka honey which comes from NZ. So I was pretty happy to see at least 10 brands of Manuka honey here, all of which comes from busy bees in our neighborhood.
I also enjoy kiwi fruit, and of course I have a story about that. The New Zealanders refer to themselves as Kiwis and enjoy being called that by foreigners as well. It was a relief to know that we were being politically correct.
When Jeff and I were at the market, I noticed that they sell two types of kiwi fruit. The one is what we find in Florida, slightly larger than an egg, with a somewhat fuzzy exterior. The other is called “gold” kiwi and it has a smooth exterior, no fuzz, and is quite a bit larger.
So while in the fruit section of the market, I said to Jeff who was just a couple of feet away from me, ”Look at the size of that kiwi!” A rather well-rounded woman standing nearby whipped around and gave me a nasty look.
It took me a minute to figure out why. But I don’t think I made her day.
Another observation. I always thought that eggs had to be refrigerated. Apparently New Zealand hens have been hypnotized to lay eggs that can be stored at room temperature. All the egg cartons are on the shelves in the supermarkets next to the canned goods. Who knew?
The Kiwis are pretty efficient in lots of ways. They also tend to be ecology minded. Our cottage has a cistern for collecting rain water that is used to flush toilets. And the hot water heater is powered by solar heat. But the thing I’ve never seen before is a “smart” skylight. It opens and closes automatically as it “senses” the need for more or less ventilation in our cottage. And check this out. It closes when it senses rain and opens again when it is sunny or partly sunny. Too much wind, and it closes. It’s smarter than some people I know.
The parking meter system is also pretty nifty. Although some free parking can be found, most spaces on the street or in parking lots require payment. You never have to worry about carrying coins to feed the meter. You just walk over to a nearby payment station and key in the license plate number on your car. It then prompts you to enter how long you’d like to park, and if you want to pay by credit card or other means (no cash). It even takes Apple Pay. If you come back to your car and want to know how much more time you have, you just put in your license number again and it shows you remaining time.
It’s a good thing the cars are fuel efficient. Gas is $2.30 a liter. That’s about $8.70 per gallon in U.S. dollars. But they don’t add ethanol (a U.S. government regulation to subsidize the corn growers, but reduces the mileage you get). And for that price you get 91 grade. So we’ve been driving around a lot, for over 2 weeks on the same tank of gas. Okay, more than you wanted to know about the petrol situation here.
I know that the people in the United States and the people in New Zealand speak a common language. But there are times when I just don’t understand what they are saying. There have been a couple of times when I’ve had to ask someone with a heavy NZ accent to repeat themselves a couple of times. They look at me like, “It’s English, what don’t you understand?”
Okay in my defense, even some of the Kiwis have trouble with accents of fellow Kiwis from other parts of the country. When I asked why they don’t have any trouble understanding Americans, I was a told because they have so many TV programs from the states, so they are used to our “strange” way of pronouncing words.
So here’s an example. The little neighborhood next to ours is called Hauraki. It is pronounced here-wreck-key. And the place you park your car is called the “kah paak”. Almost feels like I’m back in Boston.
It’s fun to explore and learn things about a different country. Yesterday was one of those “learning” days. We set out to buy a “Hop” card which allows you to ride the ferries, busses and trains at a discounted rate. We had to go to Auckland to get the card and that’s either about a 25 minute car trip or a 12 minute ferry ride. We opted for the more scenic ferry ride which is actually how we discovered Devonport several years ago. We were on a cruise and one of the ports was Auckland. When we got off the ship we saw the ferry and hopped on only to discover this wonderful quaint laid back town.
And here we are, many years later, back in Devonport. So yesterday we got on the ferry and enjoyed watching the skyline of Auckland as we pulled into the harbor. We purchased our Hop cards and walked around the city a bit. But the winds were starting to pick up so we decided to take the next ferry back “home” to Devonport.
It was about a 20 minute wait, so Jeff pressed his newly purchased Hop card against the scanner at the turnstile and went to sit on a bench inside the ferry terminal while I went across the street to get a gelato. That’s right, you don’t have to be in Italy to get fantastic gelato. My bulging waistline can prove it.
When I got back to the ferry terminal I saw Jeff was waiting under a sign that said “Half Moon Bay”. I asked my husband if we were in the right place for the ferry to Devonport and he said yes. Who am I to question this?
So we boarded the ferry and after 15 minutes (and no familiar Devonport sighting) I casually mentioned to Jeff that maybe we were taking the long way around to Devonport?? By this time the winds had really picked up and we were bouncing along the Bay with instructions to stay seated.
After 20 minutes, Jeff conceded that perhaps we had gotten on the wrong ferry. Well, we had a good laugh about it and asked someone where we were going. Seems that Half Moon Bay is about 35 minutes by ferry from Auckland and nowhere close to Devonport.
No worries. We are here to explore the Auckland area, but with this new Hop card we weren’t sure what to do. So we just stayed on the ferry hoping that it would return to Auckland, which it did. We got off and now, inside the ferry terminal, we double and triple checked to be sure we were getting on the ferry to Devonport.
A mere 12 minutes later we were back in Devonport, still laughing about our “mistake”. Notice how magnanimous I am being in saying it was “our” mistake?? So later that evening, back in our little cottage, we got on the website for the Hop card to see how much that little detour cost us.
We learned that you have to scan your card when you get on the ferry and then again when you get off. Well, nobody told us about the “off” scanning so we never scanned in Devonport. So as far as the Hop card establishment was concerned, we boarded a ferry to Half Moon Bay and never returned. We were missing in action.
Well, the Hop card police did not come after us and, if fact, they were very gracious about refunding our money, including the fine for not scanning off. We explained that we were ignorant tourists and we promised to never do that again. It is just another example of Kiwi friendliness and understanding. The same scenario in New York City might not have resulted in a refund, nor a kind word.
And then we had yet another “learning”. Jeff and I were both in need of haircuts since scissors had not been taken to our hairs since we left Florida. So as we wandered down the street of nearby Takapuna, we noticed a nice looking barber shop. We entered and Jeff was seated in the chair of one of the female barbers. I went off to do a little window shopping.
When I got back, Jeff had almost no hair on the sides and back of his head. There was still some hair on the top, but it was slicked back and gooped up with gel. Seems that’s how the kids here are wearing it now. But what was even more shocking was the beard and mustache “trim” he received. It seems that Jeff and the barber had a bit of a communication problem. She was of Maori descent and her English didn’t sound at all like our English. So what Jeff asked for, and what she understood, were apparently quite different.
Jeff now has some stubble on his upper lip and chin, where a mustache and beard used to be. I asked him how that happened and he said she put the chair in a total recline position and threw a warm towel over his eyes. So he couldn’t see what she was doing. When she sat him upright again there was nothing he could do but gasp at the “new look” and say to himself, “It’s only hair and it will grow back”. I decided to go somewhere else to get my hair cut.
There are so many other first impressions and interesting observations I could list, but I need to bring this long winded blog to a close. So the only thing that hasn’t been a total bundle of fun has been the weather. It’s been colder and rainier than normal since we got here. Summer starts here in another couple of weeks. Yeah, it’s totally weird that Christmas and the school summer vacation happen at the same time.
We did not bring clothes for cold weather. After all, we didn’t need them while cruising the (hot) South Pacific, and we knew that we’d get here just as summer was starting. So the day after we arrived, I went shopping for a warm housecoat to wear in our cottage. But the stores had gotten rid of all their winter inventory and the only warm thing I could find was a size XXXL pink fuzzy bathrobe on the clearance rack. Even though I ate a lot on the cruise I still can’t fill out a XXXL (thank God). The sleeves come down to my knees and there is enough room in there for me and a couple of my best friends. Jeff said I look like a big wad of cotton candy. He’s right, but it’s kept me warm. So hopefully some warmer, drier weather is on the way. Fingers crossed.
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